The 375th Hunger Games
by Team Renly
Summary: The 37.5th -Title won't change- Hunger Games. Formerly the 375th Hunger Games. Read the first chapter for reasons why. And the victor of the 37.5th Annual Hunger Games is...
1. Head Gamemaker

**I decided to edit the first few chapters as a sort of lead in to the Games.**

**Then I edited it again to explain the 37.5th Hunger Games. Really it's just an excuse to use the victor as a mentor in my new story and write a multichapter about the 37th Hunger Games but canon-wise I've got an explanation ready.  
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WELCOME TO THE 37.5th HUNGER GAMES:

_"To remember how valuable communication was to the war, this year, every contestant shall become an Avox by the end of the first night, or be punished with certain death."_

Reich Davis was 103 years old and his hair was disappearing faster than Capitol surgery could cover up. He'd heard of old Head Gamemakers being made... redundant because they were 'too old' but he couldn't imagine ever being too old or too sick to rule over the Hunger Games. He was the king of the Games, 30 of the 37 years as Head Gamemaker, fitting that the date fell on the first ever Half Quell. The 37th Games had ended somewhat... badly to say the least and the retribution was to be short and swift; a second Games in a year and a Quell twist just to leave no doubt in Panem's eyes that rebellion was not going to be tolerated. Reich Davis couldn't wait to get his hands on the tributes and deal out the punishment in the most poorly organised and most interesting Games ever.

It was three months to go before the Games and he couldn't wait for the slaughter to begin. If there was one thing that made Reich Davis happy, it was the smell of blood wafting up from the arena, the sight of freshly broken skin. It was almost too much to bear, waiting the three months before he could finally begin his Half Quell.

**~WolfRida~**


	2. Tribute List

**Seriously, I try picking a fight and yet fanfic doesn't even pick up a change to my story...**

Reich Davis was pleased with his staff, and a compliment from Reich Davis was a pretty impressive gift. He was holding, in his hands, a list of every new tribute only seconds after the Reapings. It was a shame, only 26 lives at his disposal, only 26 ants he could crush into oblivion at the tap of a finger. Oh, how he would have loved to be around during the 50th Hunger Games, 48 tributes to kill at the drop of a hat, just because it pleased him to watch their blood spill. He loved the smell of fear in the air every time he released a mutt and the tears of every grieving family were like gifts to his soul. Some might call him sick, insane and cruel, but all the Capitol saw was brilliance, the ability to manipulate tributes just by speaking a word and to twist the lives of children because he _wanted _to. Oh, the joys of being a bastard.**  
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Tribute List:

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue: 17 (**ForeverYoung7**)

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee: 18 (**Bowserboy129**)

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul: 12 (**BM97**)

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie: 18 (**bookandmusic97**)

District 3 Female: Pippa York: 14 (**Soonersgirlie**)

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges: 14 (**Booksandmusic97)**

District 4 Female: Dia Feng: 17 (**bookandmusic97)**

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer: 15 (**RoseTempora**)

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders: 16 (**crazy-forever**)

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm: 16 (**Leannah**)

District 6 Female: Gwyn Toung: 12 (**allreader**)

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty: 13 (**gimmeyopeetabread**)

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness: 17 (**gimmeyopeetabread**)

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei: 17 (**CandyKiller**)

District 8 Female: Ash Manor: 12 (**kitsuspirit**)

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar: 16 (**Skyclaw)**

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon: 14 (**CandyKiller**)

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel: 16 (**BM97**)

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi: 14 (**BM97**)

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga: 17 (**asdf541**)

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark: 15 (**annasauce)**

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari: 18 (**Booksandmusic97**)

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale: 14 (**RoseTempora**)

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow: 15 (**Booksandmusic97**)

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff: 13 (**RiversOfVenice**)

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody: 15 (**Current Rainbow**)

**~WolfRida~**


	3. Reaping

**I decided not to go through the whole Reapings, just snapshots from different perspectives. I'll put training scores at the start of the next chapter, but then I'm starting the Games.**

**Aphrodite Fortescue: (District 1)**

Sure, the Capitol might be made up of murderous bastards intent on killing kids for sport, but you had to give it to them: they knew what was meant by luxury.

After a soak in the bath and a proper blow-dry and straighten on my hair, we were given luxurious bath robes that had been quilted until they were about an inch think.

Now Wolf, my District partner, was lounging over the couch and forcing me to sit on the oversized armchair next to it.

He was a classic Career; tall and broad but with a light brown ponytail. The problem was that he was also a total git: he was silent, he had no friends and he totally ignored me, from the Reaping, to the train ride, to here. Who did he think he was? Some kind of spoiled brat who was 'above' everyone else?

I was planning on flipping the couch when our mentors walked in.

Tekem and Zora Lieron were twins who had won the Games in back-to-back victories, which was uncommon but not unheard of in District 1. Tall, blond and glamorous, they could have come out of moulds for the classic District 1 tribute.

"Reapings are on now, watch, both of you," Tekem commanded as he switched on the TV. I was about to complain about Wolf hogging the couch when I realised it would make me look weak, instead I began plotting revenge.

Before I watched myself get Reaped, there was a repeat of the telecast from the President, announcing the theme of the 13th Quarter Quell.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Districts, this year, the 325th since the darkest days in our nation's history, I announce the beginning of the 13th Quarter Quell. To remember the rebellions of the Dark Days and the 75th Games, we created the Games. However, I shall spare you the history lesson and announce the twist of this year's Hunger Games."

President Snow the 10th rifled around inside a small bucket at his right hand and ceremoniously extracted a piece of folded paper before announcing, "This year, every contestant shall become an Avox by the end of the first night, or be punished with certain death."

You could hear the cries of surprise from the small audience Snow commandeered as he filmed this segment as his words sunk in.

He didn't say we would be made Avoxes, he said we must be made one by the end of the first night, meaning we would have to do it ourselves by midnight, in the arena, with no medicine and no way to avoid it.

It had a definite impact on the volunteering, even in the Career districts. As I watched myself, a thirteen year-old was picked and yet I was the only one who volunteered, like some common district. I was disgusted even more as Wolf was the only one man enough to volunteer for a baby-faced twelve-year old, despite the fact there were hundreds of capable males in the audience.

When District 2's Reaping was shown, I realised I wasn't the only one with partner troubles. The girl was a doll-like twelve year old, still with tight ringlets and little red lips and she was a _volunteer_. The boys seemed to be a little more willing to man up at least, as a huge 18 year old was picked out of a pool of about twenty boys, but still it was pathetic; a disgrace to the Career districts and our reputation.

The girl from District 3 impressed me, despite the fact she was from the wimpy little electronics District. The Careers had a habit of using at least one District 3 tribute, but usually it was the boy they took. The tall, brown haired girl looked about 16, despite only being 14 but she also looked emotionless and ready to kill. The boy was scrawny and shorter than the girl and he hugged his twin brother emotionally before making his way to the stage. Basically he looked weak and pathetic.

After the first three Districts there was a break as some Capitol commentators debated who they thought looked the most promising. Despite their praise for me, I ignored them completely.

I'd watched most of the Career districts already and they were _pathetic_. I could kill Wolfgane without batting an eyelid and the only person I'd seen so far who would cause even a bit of trouble was the dumb looking District 2 guy with the ponytail; it appeared they were in style for morons this year at the Hunger Games.

**Gwyn Young: (District 6)**

I was the most comfortable I'd ever been in my life; but at the same time I was the most terrified, not that I'd ever admit it. This year had been bad for District 6; there'd been an outbreak of pox and then this Quarter Quell, it was a 13 and a 12 year old in the Games.

Normally, in years like this, someone would volunteer for twelve and thirteen year olds, but everyone was either too sick or too scared of having their tongue cut out.

I was trying to hold my emotions inside, but Greg wasn't even managing that. He was curled in a ball, crying silently into the armrest of the huge couch he was spread across. As the older one of the two of us I felt I should say something to try and make him feel better, but I couldn't. He was small and scrawny and he didn't stand a chance. I thought about telling him I'd protect him; that I'd help him get through, but it was still a relief when the Reapings from District 4 were shown and I had an excuse to look away.

The girl that was chosen for District 4 was tall and pale, with straight black hair and a bright pink streak. She was making her way to the stage when someone volunteered, but the girl venomously declined and smiled viciously when she reached the stage. The boy was two years younger at fifteen, with messy black hair over his eyes and an almost sullen-looking walk towards the stage, pausing only to flick his hair out of his eyes as he stood silently alongside the girl.

The District 5 girl was skinny but fairly tall with manicured nails, blonde hair and a disarming smile, but looked fragile compared to the two District 4 tributes and more so when a decently built but slightly shorter sixteen year old was chosen and grinned at the crowd.

Finally, it was my district and I wanted desperately to look away.

I looked small and helpless as a path was cleared to allow me to climb the steps to my doom. The cameras panned over the gaunt, pox-stricken crowd as the escort called for volunteers to find no takers.

Our escort looked almost sad as Gregory received the same treatment, as though anyone in the Capitol gave a crap about our feelings. Yeah right.

As I thought this, I felt some of my old strength return.

Worrying about the Hunger Games had made me panicky and weak, but I was stronger than that. I'd always been an outcast and probably always would be, but who cared?

I was going to win and prove to all the Districts that just because I was young didn't mean I was weak.

I was going to do whatever I could to win, no matter what.

And those ponytails from Districts 1 and 2 couldn't stop me.

**Dia Feng: (District 4)**

The Reapings were getting dull, but our mentors were forcing us to sit through them all to see if there was anyone who could be a challenge for us. As if anyone after that sorry show in District 6 could beat two of the Careers.

It seemed Sage was thinking the same thing, but it was hard to tell with him. His eyes were covered by his hair as always and his body language, slumped over the chair as he was, seemed bored but then again his eyes seemed bright despite the fact they were pitch black, even in the bright light of the Capitol tower.

District 7 wasn't much of a worry. The girl was pasty with sickly white hair but didn't seem physically unwell while the boy was built like a Career but he had soft, caring eyes and volunteered for a little twelve year old boy.

District 8 ended up with a skinny twelve year old girl and a lanky, dark-skinned boy who looked like he couldn't heft half the weapons in District 4's armoury if he tried.

The District 9 girl was small but looked fast and slightly vicious, like she could handle herself, but the boy looked pathetic: lanky and skinny, he volunteered despite the fact the kid who was chosen looked like he had a hell of a lot more of a chance and didn't seem to have any relation to the kid who volunteered. Weird much.

It seemed the Capitol was getting bored of watching weak, shrivelled little tributes being chosen in pathetic, backwater districts because they no longer stopped for any conversation among the commentators.

Representing District 10 were a skinny fourteen year old girl and a hulking seventeen year old volunteer who was built like a tank but seemed nervous on stage.

District 11 was fairly impressive as per usual with a small but fit fifteen year old with fiery red hair and an enormous, scarred eighteen year old with shifty eyes.

District 12 had a small, pale girl and a big fifteen year old who looked surprisingly well fed, but too kind to kill anyone in the arena

From District 13 were a prepubescent girl who looked confident and had a fair height for her age but combined with her short and pale district partner, didn't look like she'd make it far.

Considering the fact that Districts 2 and 1 would be part of the Careers with Sage and me, it seemed as though these Games would be a pushover, even if we did have to cut our own tongues out before nightfall.

Going to sleep that night, I was fairly confident that I had the whole competition under control.


	4. Profiles

Reich Davis crunched into an apple as he read through the new tribute files. It wasn't from District 11, but from District 9 and the knowledge of all the extra effort made to get him this one apple made the taste all the sweeter. The juice dribbled over his oversized lips as he laughed at the pathetic Reapings. How weak they were, scared of not being able to talk before they died, even the Careers were pathetic. They were at least a varied lot, a few twelve year olds and a few decent Careers. At least he'd get a little fun out of turning them against each other. Weak little ants, at his disposal for the most entertaining deaths. Reich Davis couldn't imagine a better life.

**Name: Wolfgane lee**

**Age: 18**

**District:1**

Height:6 feet tall

Weight:225 pounds of pure muscle

Appearance: Wolfgang gives off this intimidating aura just by the way he looks. He has brown eyes light brown hair that he keeps in a short low base ponytail. He has slightly tanned skin.

Personality: Wolf is a bit of a loner... Ok big loner to the point of having no friends (not that he cares) Wolf is always thinking about what could happen (he knows careers not volunteering is possible) he never really let's himself get attached to people for reasons no one knows

Volunteered or Chosen: volunteered because a 12 got reaped and no one was volunteering and he thought that volunteering for this kid would get him some sponsors plus he doesn't want the kid to embarrass district 1.

Weapon of Choice: axes and swords

Phobia: heights (like being straight up in a tree and on the side of a rock wall)

Talents: Wolf is strong fast and smart not a very strong swimmer but that doesn't matter, he is good with every weapon but prefers axes and swords. He can't really manipulate girls to well but other than that he has no weaknesses (He is a career he's been training his whole life to go to the games even though he didn't plan to until the kid was reaped.)

Other: have him request that his prep team cut his hair shorter so that people can't just reach out and grab it and kill him

**Name: Aphrodite Fortescue**

**Age: 17**

**District: 1**

Height: 5'9"

Weight: 135

Appearance: She has long (fake) blonde hair, a (fake) tan; she had surgery on her eyes so that they are now purple. She's tall and fairly muscular, seeing as she has been in training for the Games her whole life. Everyone thinks that she's super pretty (like most district one females are), but it's obvious her looks are not real, and she has an awful personality.

Personality: She is spoiled rotten by her parents, who are sure that she is going to win the Hunger Games, and they have been training her for as long as she can remember. She acts like she's the best thing since sliced bread, very cocky. She is, however, a good fighter. She can kill without feeling, and be extremely ruthless, if necessary. She is determined to win the Hunger Games, and kill as many people as possible.

Volunteered or Chosen: Volunteered after deciding that she's finally ready to enter the arena after all her training.

Weapon of Choice: She's best with daggers.

Phobia: Deathly afraid of water, because she can't swim.

Talents: She is very skilled with physical combat, seeing as that's what she's been training. However, her survival skills (gathering, setting up camp, hunting, etc) are not very good at all. She kind of overlooked the "easy" (in her close minded opinion) things in her training.

**Name: Ronan Valkyrie**

**Age: 18**

**District: 2**

Height: 6 foot 6 (my friend is 16 and 6' 8...scary!)

Weight: 225 lbs. of muscle from Career training

Appearance: Ronan has long brown hair but they will make him cut it for the Games. His long hair is his pride and joy so he will be really ** about that. Ronan has light brown skin and dark brown eyes; he looks either Native American or Hispanic- however one chooses to perceive it. He has a tattoo of a black rose dipped in blood on his left bicep and one of barbed wire all the way around his right bicep. On his chest, he has a small tattoo of a skull.

Personality: Ronan is a tough, rowdy, loud and obnoxious young man. He feels very little remorse for anything he does. However, he is not a sociopath (as they are incapable of feeling any remorse at all). He has already killed one other young teen in training this year and he is very bloodthirsty. He is a bit softer than most Careers in that he will end his victim's suffering quickly if they are 12 or 13 year old. But if they are strong fighters or older than 13, he will be ruthless and make them suffer. He is arrogant and thinks he is the absolute greatest.

Ronan has all of the makings to be a victor, EXCEPT for one thing...he lacks the brainpower. He is not very intelligent, like, at all.

Volunteered or Chosen: Volunteered because he is sure he can win.

Weapon of Choice: Spear or sword, but mostly spear

Phobia: Fire

Talents: His strength, his will-power, his ability to survive and persevere- unfortunately, he is rather stupid.

Quick History: His parents had him when his mother was 23 and his father 25 and they never married. They split up when he was 3 and his older sister was 5 and younger sisters were 2 years and six months old. He has both a stepmother and a stepfather. His parents are still on good term and he likes both of his step-parents. His step-dad gets on his nerves sometimes, but their fights are never long and too vicious. Ronan lives with his father and stepmother along with his older sister (Talia, 20). Their younger sisters (Tamara, 17 & Raewyn, 15) live with their mom and step dad.

**Name: Claudia Van Paul**

**Age: 12**

**District: 2**

Height: Short

Weight: Skinny/Muscle

Appearance: She looks sweet like a baby doll. Her hair is curly and like a porcelain doll. Cheeks and lips rosy red, dainty blue eyes, white teeth, blonde doll hair...but underneath is...

Personality:...a cold blooded killer. She killed two peers in training over rights to an axe. She is a sociopath, meaning: She fears not. Cares not. Feels not. She incapable if remorse. It is impossible for her to care about anybody but herself. However, sociopaths always put on a charming and dangerous mask of normalcy and innocence. Only somebody crazy smart can figure her out

Volunteered or Chosen: Volunteered

Weapon of Choice: Axe, spear, sword, flail

Phobia: none

**Name: Braxton Bridges**

**Age: 14**

**District: 3**

Height: He is slightly short. 5'2

Weight: He is scrawny and doesn't weigh much

Appearance: Braxton has short, brown hair, brown eyes, and light brown skin.

Personality: Braxton is very much like Beetee- extremely smart, imaginative, caring for general human welfare. In the arena, he will only fight defensively.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: Sword and his brain

Phobia: Dying

Talents: He is smart and can play the piano

Other: The only important family is his twin brother Maxton.

**Name: Pippa York**

**Age: 14**

**District: 3  
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>Height: 5'7"<p>

Weight: 145

Appearance: Pippa is young with dark brown, almost black hair, pale skin, and unnaturally bright green eyes. She is very, very tall for her young age, and she moves with a grace almost unheard of in children her age. She is very strong because she rows on the water.

Personality: Pippa is a very smart girl who prefers reasoning with logic to making headstrong choices. She is strong and sees the death of others a a necessity to ensure her own survival and will do whatever it takes to survive.

Family: She lives alone with her mother with no other siblings. Pippa never knew her father, he was gone before she was born but her mother often tells her that she looks just like him.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen (but she is a career!)

Weapon of Choice: Gold tipped spear

Phobia: Drowning- she loves the water, but she also fears a death beneath its surface.

Talents: Rowing, making baskets and other important goods from natural resources (much like Native Americans did, hides well in any area near water.)

**Name: Sage Zaywer**

**Age: 15**

**District: Four**

Height: 5'8

Weight: 119

Appearance: Long black hair that covers his eyes, sun-kissed skin, dark mysterious black eyes that keep you wondering, tall and broad.

Personality: Sage is very closed off to the world and his district. Though he seems quiet, he can turn into a cold-hearted warrior in the blink of an eye. He doesn't like feeling enclosed in small spaces or being hammered with questions.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: Spear or Trident

Phobia: Small spaces.

**Name: Dia Feng**

**Age: 17**

**District: 4  
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>Height: 5'4<p>

Weight: 122 lbs

Appearance: Dia has yellow skin, black hair cut to shoulder length with one hot pink streak in it and dark eyes. Her ancestors on both side were Chinese :) She is attractive is people are into girls that are her type. Not too fat, not too skinny- leaning more toward "average" than anything else. However, is people are attracted to blondes, redheads or blue-eyed girls, then she would seem un-attractive.

Personality: Dia is a typical teenager. She IS a Career but is not as bloodthirsty as the others. She will actively hunt for tributes with the others and will kill them but will feel a little bit of guilt afterwards. She is very intelligent- not exactly a genius, but her memory and skills of observance are excellent. She is a great liar and can lie convincing with a straight face and without any give-away body language. Her big brother (Price, 21) jokes that she is a compulsive liar. Is she? She doesn't think so, but it is possible.

Volunteered or Chosen: Sort of both, because her name was Reaped and some random 18 year old girl volunteers but Dia declines because she has always wanted to be in the Games but her parents forbade her from volunteering for them; so, being Reaped fulfilled her dream while keeping her parents' wishes.

Weapon of Choice: Trident

Phobia: She is afraid of dying, which isn't excellent for the arena

Talents: Her memory, her skill with the trident, her strategy and observance skills and her knack for lying

Other: She will try to "study" the other tributes and commit to memory everything she can. When tensions begin to rise in the Career pack she will most likely leave while they are sleeping with just the things she will need for her survival until she comes across another tribute with a backpack. Possible kill the rest of the career in their sleep- BUT that is a Mary-Sue thing to do, so... never mind but killing them.

**Name: Xac Ekstorm**

**Age: 16**

**District: 5**

Height: 5'6

Appearance: light ash brown hair/grey eyes/medium build/tan

Personality: funny/charming/don't always finish his sentences/can get really mad without warning/trustful

Volunteered or Chosen: chosen

Weapon of Choice: spear

Phobia: Spiders.

Talents: hand to hand combat/snares/ok at climbing/fast runner

Weakness: get tired quickly and can't handle a knife

Cornucopia strategy: Grab something near and run hide somewhere nearby maybe find an ally.

Romance: Maybe; with someone form another district would be awesome.

Family: Two older brothers. He's from a rich family.

**Name: Kara Sanders**

**Age: 16**

**District: 5**

Height: 5'3

Weight: 7 stone

Appearance: Skinny copper blonde with large hazel eyes. Cute disarming face and a sly smile. A few freckles on her tiny nose.

Personality: A flirt, can flirt with anyone and anything. People love her and think she's an innocent dumb blonde, but little do people know she's a fantastic actress, able to manipulate anyone. Nobody knows what she's really like- not even herself. She's always flirty, funny and a little bit crazy though, and extrememely capable of killing someone behind their backs. She might feel guilty about it, but if it's their life of hers, she'd choose herself. Struggles to get too close to anyone as she has trust issues. Is scared of insects.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: anything and everything

Phobia: Dying and insects.

Talents: lying, looking innocent.

**Name: Gregory Pinty**

**Age:13**

**District: 6**

Height:5'9"

Weight: 125

Appearance: This is a very skinny and lanky guy. He doesn't have any muscles, and is extremely skinny-probably from malnutrition. He has shoulder length wavy brown hair. His hair is very dirty and tangled. He should have a goofy and kind face. Brown eyes

Personality: He is a goofy kid. He cracks jokes and tries to lighten the situation up because he can't handle fear and stress. Deep down, he is terrified, but doesn't want to face it or show it. So he smiles and laughs a lot! Some people would find him annoying.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: He knows nothing about weapons, but he can hold a knife well

Phobia: scared of dying

Talents: joke making?

**Name: Gwyn Young**

**Age:12**

**District: 6**

Height:4'9

Weight:72

Appearance: black hair, albino, green eyes

Personality: tomboyish, disobeys all rules you get the idea

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: Dagger

Phobia: Girly girls, high heels, make up etc...

Talents: swimming, climbing being rude

**Name: Zane Basserei**

**Age: 17**

**District: 7**

Height: 6' - 6'1"

Weight: 210 lbs (muscular)

Appearance: Crew cut dark brown hair. Warm chocolate brown eyes. Tanned and muscular with scars on his hands and forearms from accidents. He's really tall and seems intimidating but he is actually the opposite. Zane is always smiling, well most of time.

Personality: He is what you would call a gentle giant. Zane is almost always smiling and in a good mood. He tries hard to protect those important to him. He would like as much as possible not to kill unless he really, really had to.

Volunteered or Chosen: Volunteered for a 12 year old that was chosen.

Weapon of Choice: An axe, a regular one or a battle axe wouldn't really matter.

Phobia: Ursaphobia (fear of bears, when he was younger he saw someone get mauled by a bear)

Talents: He is quite the sculptor although he never really flaunts this talent.

**Name: Ivory Ness**

**Age:17**

**District:7**

Height:5'3"

Weight: 120 lbs

Appearance: She has an overall appearance of elegance that is slightly off and unusual. Her hair is so blonde that it's considered almost white and sickly. She has big sad pale blue eyes and porcelain skin. She is overall extremely pale-almost like a ghost. The only distinctive colour she has is when she blushes bright pink-which happens quite often! She is considered unusual and pretty. If she is from district 7, she has toned arms, but she isn't muscular. She has average physicality-she's not weak, but not strong either.

Personality: She is a very shy, and not very social. She really wants to interact with people more often, but feels uncomfortable. Her awkwardness is shown through how much she blushes. She is extremely intelligent because she spends most of her time alone. Her instincts and intelligence tell her to try and reach out during the Hunger Games, but she will always come off as nervous.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: if from District 7, of course it's an axe! She is actually extremely good at it because she would rather spend time in the woods with an axe working alone than be with others.

Phobia: People. Again, she is very shy! Nothing else scares her, but relationships with people

Talents: Using an axe, and being able to hide and slip away in silence like a ghost.

**Name: Morty Fellar**

**Age: 16**

**District: 8  
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>Height: 5"8<p>

Weight: 150 pbs.

Appearance: Morty has close-cropped hair. He has dark skin. He has dark eyes. He's lanky and undesirable. He has some muscles if you squint. He's intimidating, though, because he stares down at people and is arrogant. He carries himself in a way that makes him seem important.

Personality: Arrogant and cocky because he's from a slightly wealthy part of the district. His mom pampers him, but he hangs out with the 'wrong crowd' and so he gets into fist fights and likes to insult people for the joy of it. He's not evil, but obnoxious. If you look hard enough, his only good qualities are bravery and reliability (surprising, yes, but being in the bad crowd means lots of friends).

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen.

Weapon of Choice: He likes to use his fist and maybe a sword because his reflexes are good enough for close combat. But long-distance... he sucks.

Phobia: He's strongly dislikes the dark, but not in a way that terrifies him, but in a way like he can't see what's going on around him. He's also hydrophobic, he doesn't like water.

Talents: The sword, the fist, the mouth (charming and insulting) and quite fast.

**Name: Ash Manor**

**Age: 12**

**District: 8**

Height: 165cm

Weight: 8 stone

Appearance: Fair hair to her shoulders and brown eyes. Medium height and quite slender.

Personality: Keeps to herself mostly but can be quite sarcastic in the presence of others. She prefers to go it alone. Very mistrustful.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: Trickery.

Phobia: Darkness, bugs.

Talents: Evasion and cleverness.

**Name: Cruz Markel**

**Age: 16**

**District: 9  
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>Height: Short<p>

Weight: Skinny

Appearance: Cruz has light brown skin, dark hair and brown eyes

Personality: Cruz is rather dumb. He is an idiot and his brain is a few million cells short. Bloodbath for sure; he is also a jackass

Volunteered or Chosen: Volunteered for no reason at all

Weapon of Choice: He cant even use weapons

Phobia: Sharp things, pointy things

Talents: None.

**Name: Aeva Persimmon**

**Age: 14**

**District: 9**

Height: 5'1" - 5'2"

Weight: 105 lbs

Appearance: Pale and freckled complexion. Copper coloured curls matched with cinnamon coloured eyes. Elfish features and she has a tiny but slender and willowy frame.

Personality: She's tiny but fierce. She's a bit of an adventurer, as long as it was on the ground. Aeva has quite the temper and would lash out at anyone who would cross her. Due to her tiny stature she could squeeze into hiding spots no one would ever think of. She is also quite the little prankster as she likes to sometimes take things and hides them.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen.

Weapon of Choice: A crossbow, or anything that won't require her to come closer to her enemy.

Phobia: Acrophobia (fear of heights)

Talents: She has photogenic memory, which allows her to remember things (such as where she's hidden something).

**Name: Crato Giaga**

**Age: 17**

**District: 10**

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 208

Appearance: Dark tan skin, long shaggy black hair, large scar on left leg,(You pick why)Dark stormy blue eyes, chapped lips, and very strong.

Personality: Very quite

Volunteered or Chosen: Volunteered

Weapon of Choice: Knife, spear, and gem studded knife.

Phobia: Shy, fear of talking to large crowds, and scared of sharp things. (except for his knifes)

Talents: He can hold his breath underwater for five minutes or longer. Really good at throwing knifes.

**Name: Giada Rossi**

**Age: 14**

**District: 10**

Height: Short

Weight: Scrawny (Bloodbath)

Appearance: She has brown hair brown eyes and tan skin. She is short, tiny and has a scar above her left eye from a livestock issue.

Personality: She is sweet, kind, caring, funny. She would never kill a soul. She considers the tributes her friends. In fact, unless a tribute was heartless and bloodthirsty, they became friends with her in training or at meals. She us really likeable so the only person who will kill her is a sociopath (I also created that person)

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: none

Phobia: Dying, death, blood

Talents: Sociable.

**Name: Xander Baakari**

**Age: 18**

**District: 11**

Height: 6'4

Weight: Not sure. He is tall and very muscular from working in the fields.

Appearance: He is tall and has dark hair, skin and eyes. He has scars on his hands from a harvesting machine incident.

Personality: He is tough from the persecution by the Peacekeepers and can endure anything. He is kind but will kill to go home

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: Axe or a blunt object

Phobia: Spiders?

Talents: He is a strong fighter

**Name: Fawn Lark**

**Age: 15**

**District: 11**

Height: 5'4" feet

Weight: 102.5 lbs.

Appearance: Fiery red hair that is outlined against her fair skin. She has two different coloured eyes. One is green, the other is blue. Uncommon, but true.

Personality: Normally sweet, but when aggregated, she does have a hostile side to her. So don't underestimate her… She could be planning against you!

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: (Throwing) Knife/ves, Darts, Spear.

Phobia: Bugs, Mud, Reptiles.

Talents: Being sneaky, working out plans, climbing, throwing (knives, darts, etc.).

Weaknesses: Being quiet, clumsy, bad eyesight (in one eye, the other is fine).

**Name: Alex Sparrow**

**Age: 15**

**District: 12**

Height: He is tall, 6'2 and muscular. His family runs the bakery

Weight: 210 LBS of muscle

Appearance: Tall, muscular, blonde hair and blue eyes

Personality: He is really sweet- to kind to kill someone. Despite his size, he is a bloodbath death for sure.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: He has never used weapons before. He ends up liking the axe best

Phobia: Killing

Talents: His kindness perhaps can be a talent

**Name: Artemis Rey Yale**

**Age: 14**

**District: 12**

Height: 5'6

Weight: 98 pbs

Appearance: Long blond hair that cascades down her back and ends at her waist, deep sea-blue eyes, pale-porcelain like skin, and a tiny, petite figure.

Personality: Tends to be a little eccentric, but is a very good strategist and can think quickly.

V or C: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: Traps, such as nets and poison.

**Name: Ezekiel "Ike" Peabody**

**Age: 15**

**District: 13**

Height: 5'5"

Weight: 125

Appearance: A boy who is short in height for his age with pale skin, very dull light blue eyes and only a very light brown buzz cut for hair. There is a light set of freckles on his face. Fairly good looking, nothing special.

Personality: Tolerant and street-smart, Ike has learned to be patient. He's a fairly smart and resourceful kid who is otherwise somewhat social and friendly, but friends and popularity are not his main priority. Has some District 13 rebel in him, but is not a man of action, he prefers thinking before he acts and setting up a plan.

Volunteered or Chosen: Chosen

Weapon of Choice: Knife

Phobia: Claustrophobia

Talents: Pick pocketing, agility, intelligence and resourcefulness, not bad with a knife.

**Name: Alexandretta "Lexi" Mainoff**

**Age: 13**

**District: 13  
><strong>  
>Height: 5'6''<p>

Weight: 90 lbs.

Appearance: Skinny, black hair pulled down into a braid, dark eyes, olive skin, hasn't hit puberty yet.

Personality: Lexi is a soft-spoken and careful girl. Over the years, she has learnt not to trust anyone she doesn't know, especially Capitol people. She has a disgust for the Hunger Games and the Capitol, so she won't hesitate to speak her mind and say the Capitol is sh*t (when she's angry, she swears a lot). Since she's enclosed in her personal bubble, she doesn't have many friends, and is cold and distant to people in the school. When she hunts, she has the tendency to build traps out of nowhere and when the animal is ready to die, she slices its head off with her dagger.

Volunteered or Chosen: Reaped.

Weapon of Choice: Daggers, or traps.

Phobia: Spiders and fire.

Talents: Building traps, daggers, hunting, identifying plants.

Is it okay if I add her family and friends? Well, here they are:

Father, Brooke Mainoff, deceased: He died in the Hunger Games when he was 18.

Mother, Laguna Mainoff-Hale, deceased: She was only 19 when she gave birth to Lexi, and when she was 22 she died giving birth to Lexi's half-brother Tristan.

Stepdad, Donovan Hale (34): He has a little pharmacy in District 13 and earns just enough money to feed his son and stepdaughter. He loves both of them, although he fails to see Lexi doesn't really like him.

Half-brother, Tristan Hale (10): Lexi loves her half-brother, and will do anything for him. When she learnt how to hunt, she taught him as well, although Tristan has found a special interest on bows and arrows, while Lexi is awful at this. He is a lot more social than his half-sister and is quirky, funny and really talkative.

Best friend, Dylan Moss (14): He is Lexi's neighbour and best friend. He often hunts with her and they spend most of the day together. He is a lot like her, just as a guy. He can't stand Lexi's friend Selena since she started suggesting he likes Lexi. He and Lexi are friends since they first met as one-year-olds.

Best friend, Selena Reinhold (13): She met Lexi when they started elementary school, and quickly befriended each other. Selena is a dreamy, funny girl who loves romance and fluffy stuff. Although Lexi would rather go hunting with Dylan, she also enjoys talking with Selena, as long as she doesn't take her shopping.

**These are the tribute profiles with a bit of grammar correction mixed in, you can pick which tributes to read, the names are in capitals.**


	5. The Joys of Gamemaking

**Just another tidbit from our Head Gamemaker Reich Davis.**

Reich Davis' preparations were almost complete. Even as he tapped persistently at his miniature laptop, the chariots were rolling out of their stations, the crowds cheering on their tributes. He had a tiny window open in the corner showing the decibels for each tribute's passing. It appeared Sage Zawyer and Wolfgane Lee were popular with the ladies, perhaps they could receive a little... help. Supposedly the only help in the Games came form sponsors, but it was so dull if the tributes everyone hated were the only ones that lasted. It was no coincidence that the favourites always made it well into the competition, who wanted to watch some insane boy like Cruz Markel win the Hunger Games? Influencing the victor was a precise art, every move had to be coordinated to the millimetre from positioning of tributes and weapons in the cornucopia to the paths followed by tributes. Oh, how fun messing with tributes' minds is.

**You'll probably have to review anonymously because these chapters already existed but I thought it was less boring than the usual tribute lists and etc. I've almost finished the new chapters, I've done Wolf's and almost Sage's but I want to put them out there at the same time so it doesn't sway voting.**


	6. Day 1

**Hunger Games Time!**

**Training Scores:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue: 9

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee: 10

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul: 10

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie: 9

District 3 Female: Pippa York: 7

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges: 5

District 4 Female: Dia Feng: 8

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer: 10

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders: 4

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm: 6

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young: 4

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty: 3

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness: 6

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei: 7

District 8 Female: Ash Manor: 5

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar: 6

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon: 8

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel: 3

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi: 4

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga: 7

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark: 7

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari: 9

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale: 5

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow: 6

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff: 8

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody: 7

**Pippa York: (District 3)**

As I sat in the Launch Room, I could feel the sweat running down my palms as I gripped my legs tightly. I was confident of surviving the beginning, having made a deal with the Careers, but it was the future I was worried about.

Once I'd out lived my use with the Careers, they had no reason to keep me. I was smart enough to be able to build weapons like spears or snares and weave baskets out of reeds, but District 4 could probably do that better than I could, and I definitely couldn't fight.

Maybe I could set up a trap for them, using other tributes to fight for me, but if it failed I'd face certain death, if not torture.

As the disc appeared to take me into the arena, I realised I had to accept my fate. I was going to die.

No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, I was dead anyway. Sure, 3 had won before, but those kids had been on their own, able to set traps and vanish unnoticed while I was in the spotlight, my every move watched by deadly Careers.

I could remember them, sitting in the dining hall at the Training Centre.

Sage was leaning back against his chair, looking bored as he played with a strand of hair in front of his eyes. Dia and Aphrodite seemed perfect for each other: vicious and bitchy as they plotted the deaths of the others. Ronan and Wolf just sat there, twice the size of me and clenching their fists and generally exuding testosterone.

Claudia was just creepy. She sat on the edge of the table with an angelic smile on her face as she watched the rest of the tributes with an almost eerie focus. She might have been the youngest and smallest, but she was the one who scared me the most.

They'd been arguing about whether to keep Claudia or not, seeing as how small she was. Ronan left the girls with an ultimatum; she stays or he goes. They agreed to let her stay, but I could see they thought he was a wimp, looking after her because she was a little girl. I thought, on the contrary, that he knew something we didn't, and that was a bad sign.

The plate was lowered onto a mountaintop as the countdown began.

I could see the Careers preparing to sprint for the Cornucopia as the others prepared to fight or run.

There was a slight plateau on which the Gamemakers had placed the Cornucopia, but other than that it didn't look like there was any other flat ground for miles around.

A creek ran around the valley underneath the plateau but the trees were sparse after about fifty metres of forest either side of the stream.

All in all, it looked like the idea was to leave tributes vulnerable and crammed together to increase the chance of bloodshed.

My mind suddenly snapped into focus as I realised the countdown was already down to 15 and that I had to be prepared in case of a fight.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Suddenly, there was a wave of sound as the tributes sprinted away from their platforms.

I could see Ronan was the first to reach the Cornucopia as he picked up a morning star and smashed it into the face of the weird District 9 kid who volunteered for apparently no reason at all.

I saw a flash of blond and I realised it was Claudia holding a slender knife as she chased the big, slow District 12 boy.

She was still smiling the little angelic smile she'd had at the dining hall, even as she slit him open and pushed him off the top of the plateau. I could hear the cries of his district partner as Claudia dived off the edge at a sprint with her arms trailing like a bird in flight as she followed the scream.

I finally recovered from my paralysed state of terror as I drew a sword at random out of the stack on the cornucopia, just in time to turn away a strike from the District 10 girl as Aphrodite skewered her with long-bladed dagger.

I knew I hadn't killed her, but I felt sick as I watched her slide off Aphrodite's blade to fall cold and motionless to the ground at my feet.

I could see Dia chasing the two tiny District 6 tributes as they tried to run to the safety of the forest.

She was gaining of them as a dark shape came barrelling out of the trees. I feared mutts, or worse, but as it impaled itself on Dia's spear, it became apparent it was the huge, gentle tribute from District 7 who'd come to protect the young ones.

I felt a moment of joy as I realised that the two little kids had gotten away until I realised someone else had to die for it to happen.

When the cannons fired, I counted 6 explosions, almost a quarter of the tributes dead in instants.

All the other tributes had cleared off, leaving the Careers at the top with a huge haul of equipment, even with the theft of supplies by every other tribute before they ran.

Ronan, Wolf, Aphrodite, Dia and Sage started taking dibs on equipment, albeit silently in most cases, as Claudia appeared, wiping blood off her knife as she climbed atop the plateau.

"You get her?" Ronan asked.

She shook her head as she stamped her foot like a baby having a tantrum, "She got away…" she sighed as we started to set up camp for the night.

**Crato Giaga: (District 10)**

I panted as I ran further into the forest until I reached the creek, where I slumped on to the ground and splashed cool water on my face.

I'd been hiding near the edge of the forest with a spear I'd taken from the cornucopia with a knife clenched in my other hand. My knuckles were turning white as I gripped it tighter and tighter.

As I climbed the tree, I heard heavy footsteps and I thought the Careers had followed me, so I hid in the trees and stabbed with the spear as soon as the person came in sight.

Only, it wasn't a Career.

The two little kids had sprinted into the forest while Zane, the District 7 kid, had sprinted out, creating the heavy footsteps, not the kids.

I'd speared the little boy, Gregory, straight through the head. ON a normal person, it would have been in the chest, but he was so short that it... didn't miss completely.

I tried desperately to take back what I'd done, to undo the last few minutes, but I couldn't.

I'd had to pull him off with my bare hands, then leave the body in the forest for animals to destroy.

I hated myself, how could I have killed a twelve year old boy? That wasn't human, that was terrible. You just didn't do that to other people. It was wrong and cruel, and I blamed myself, every bit as much as I blamed the Capitol.

As I cut my tongue, it felt like a necessary pain, a retribution for what I'd done. Even if I couldn't speak, I could still speak out against the Capitol. They said an picture spoke a thousand words and a mouth unable to speak was the perfect picture.

**Aeva Persimmon: (District 9)**

I knew most of the other tributes had joined some sort of alliance, whether they joined the Careers or otherwise, and in many ways I was glad that I hadn't been asked. I was definitely a one-man-band kind of girl, not that it stopped me feeling guilty.

Braxton, the District 3 kid, had been leaning against a tree, catching his breath. I knew that he could be dangerous if he teamed up with anyone else, even if the Careers had the other District 3 anyway.

I still didn't know if it was the right decision, but I killed him. I had a bow and an arrow that had slid out of a quiver balanced on the Cornucopia which meant I had to look straight into his dead-eyed stare as I ripped the arrow out of his chest and climbed into the fork between three braches higher in the tree, using small branches to create a little human bird's nest in the trees.

I was about to fall asleep when I remembered the rules.

I thought about a knife, before realising I mustn't have grabbed it at the plateau.

I searched the Braxton kid and still found nothing, not even a scrap of a supply from the whole Cornucopia.

I started to panic, thinking I'd be killed brutally by the Gamemakers for ignoring the rules when I realised I still had the arrow, covered in Braxton's blood. I tried to wash it in the river, but some of it had dried and the minutes were slowly counting down until midnight and I realised I had no other options.

Even if I survived, I'd never use another arrow in my life.

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

We'd finally finished sorting out the supplies and organising a sort of camp around the horn of the Cornucopia.

Despite the fact I was from District 4, somehow it was Aphrodite, Ronan and Dia that ended up with the good tridents and spears. Wolf seemed happy enough with a broadaxe he'd taken of Zane's corpse, but he seemed frustrated that the District 7 girl had escaped with the best axe while everyone had been fighting in the bloodbath.

Aphrodite somehow managed to convince the group to give her every one of the daggers we had received while Ronan and Wolf had all of the swords and Claudia seemed satisfied with a wicked knife with a tiny hook at the end which, no one would admit, we suspected was for ripping out organs.

I really hoped she wouldn't use it.

Anyway, by being the silent ones, Pippa and I ended up with the leftovers. I was going to wait until she'd taken her pick as well when she offered me a weapon.

It was originally a short, heavy knife and a wooden pole meant to be used to hold the tarp in the air, but she'd used her token, a plaited leather necklace, to strap it down tightly to create a make shift spear.

I was surprised, and genuinely moved. She'd worked with me on several stations at the Training Centre and sat with me at lunch, but I was surprised by such a gift, especially when I wasn't even from her District and was technically meant to be trying to kill her.

My fingers brushed hers as I accepted the gift and she blushed slightly in the moonlight before turning away.

I felt I should be giving her something in return and so I folded up a bandage and some fishing line, cut it and plaited it to make a bracelet before attaching my District token; a wooden fishhook shaped like a tiny fire and giving it to her.

"Thanks," she smiled and I realised this little exchange had earned me an ally much closer than any Career pack ties.

I ended up with just a jacket and the spear, but I was happy enough. I had a weapon and I had shelter and that was all I needed to win.

"Guys…" Pippa began anxiously.

"What?" grunted Ronan while Wolf's eyes flickered towards her in the half-light created by the full moon.

"Remember the new rule?" she asked.

She didn't need to say anything more. We all knew what came next as Aphrodite passed out knives.

"Anyone got anything important to say?" Dia asked.

I turned to Pippa and whispered, "Thank you," before pressing the mute button on the rest of my life.

**Ezekiel "Ike" Peabody: (District 13)**

I'd stayed with Lexi since we'd run from the Cornucopia, but since then we'd picked up some stragglers.

The already mute Crato sat away from the rest of the group, just out of range of the small lantern Ash had taken at the Cornucopia.

The other member of our little band was Xander, from District 11, but we were acutely aware that we didn't have enough people to stand up to the Careers.

Even with some semi-decent training scores, we had a weapon each, none of them long range, and barely any food.

The muting ceremony was sad for all of us, each with memories of talking and things we'd said or always wanted to say, but never would. Crato appeared to start shaking as Ash borrowed his knife, but even if he anyone could ask, he couldn't answer.

We organised watching the camp with a stick, drawing numbers in the dust, when the Capitol seal appeared.

6 dead: Braxton from 3, Gregory from 6, Zane from 7, Cruz from 9, Giadi from 10 and Alex from 12.

I wonder who killed the little boy from 6 when I realise Crato's shaking again, gripping the knife like life support as he stares into the distance.

Crap.

There goes any sponsorship for us.


	7. Broken Alliances

**I hope you enjoy my representation of grunting out words without using your tongue; it took a lot of time working it out and probably creeped out everyone in my house.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Ivory Ness: (District 7)**

After the national anthem had finished, I decided it was safe to set up a camp site. It was unlikely that any of the tributes, even the Careers, would go hunting at night before they'd had a chance to survey the surroundings.

I ended up in the hollow formed by a tree that was felled by lightning. It was a natural hiding spot but it also smelt like pine trees and the wood smoke that I associated with home.

I'd risked the ire of the Careers by climbing the Cornucopia during the bloodbath but all I managed to get was an axe. I liked axes, I was used to them from cutting wood back at home in District 7, but as the night went on I found myself desperately wishing for a blanket, or even just some company.

During the training, I'd been too nervous to talk to the other tributes and to try and form an alliance, but now I was alone, it seemed stupid.

Later on, almost everyone ended up travelling alone, but for now I was just alone and terrified of what could happen, alone in the woods.

I knew I could go and try and join up with any number of other tributes, but I was too nervous that they would try and kill me, or I'd have to watch them die, or even just that things would get too awkward.

My only remaining option was to try to go it alone, maybe try finding berries and possibly even try stealing supplies from other groups, but I couldn't do that with everyone asleep at their camps.

So eventually I ended up tucked up in the tree with my jacket wrapped around me like a life jacket as I finally succumbed to the emotional exhaustion and slept.

**Alexandretta "Lexi" Mainoff: (District 13)**

Somehow I'd ended up with the 3am watch shift over our little alliance. Despite the fact I was exhausted, I had to keep myself awake and I wouldn't get any more sleep until midnight seeing as they'd agreed to leave at dawn.

I was nervous about being in the alliance at all, I already knew Crato had killed the 12 year old boy and the huge District 11 boy's hands were covered in scars from an unknown source. My logical side said it was from working in the orchids, maybe he had an accident in the fields, but my paranoid side said that he was a criminal or vagabond.

Finally, the little District 8 girl seemed twitchy and her eyes seemed to be constantly searching the forest and weighing up the rest of us.

The only reason I hadn't run for the hills was because of Ike. I barely knew him from District 13, but even though we couldn't talk, I felt comforted by the presence of someone from home.

When dawn finally came, it seemed that the Careers had stayed at their little base on the plateau, but it also appeared that Ash had snuck off in the middle of the night, replacing her equipment with Xander's extra blanket so it looked as though she was still there while, in reality, she'd run off with her share of the food, blankets and weapons.

Ike, who seemed to have gravitated into the position of leader, was annoyed that she'd run off, and annoyed I hadn't noticed, but I got the feeling that this alliance was failing before it started.

Ash had been a lone wolf anyway, she was always watching her back, even in training and when we were in a group and Crato seemed traumatised by the death of Gregory and unwilling to raise his weapon, even when he was cooking.

Xander was the only one I wasn't sure about. He seemed willing to put some effort into keeping the alliance together, but with only four of us it seemed unlikely that it was going to end well.

We ended up stopping near the creek to build a slightly more permanent camp to return to whenever we needed to.

Xander cut down trees, using a sword we'd collected like an axe, while Crato helped make a tiny hut out of the logs by leaning them against each other. Ike and I worked on hiding the fact that there was an opening by covering the result in vines and fallen leaves.

It was midday by the time we'd finished construction, but it was clear that the alliance wasn't working.

Unable to interact with each other, hand gestures weren't enough to organise things and despite collecting berries together and killing some small beaver-like animal that was nesting in the undergrowth, we were beginning to feel awkward until finally Crato stood up, pointed to himself then walked out the… door.

I felt guilty, but as soon as he left I was relieved that he was gone. I didn't know why, but somehow he'd killed a defenceless little kid and that unnerved me.

Xander seemed willing to spend his collecting fruit and berries while I made traps for fish and animals, replacing ropes with the thick vines that covered the trees nearest the creek and Ike tried making the camp more comfortable for the night.

It was probably the quickest breakdown of an alliance in the history of the Hunger Games, but I was more comfortable with the mini group and I was glad that at least there were two more people I wouldn't feel guilty about killing when the time came.

**Ash Manor: (District 8)**

As I sprinted away from the alliance's makeshift campsite, I wondered if I'd made the right decision by leaving the group.

I was worried that I'd endangered myself, but I slowly grew more confident. I wasn't made for being with other people. If you looked in the dictionary under 'not a team player' you'd find a picture of me, grinning with a knife in my hand, or possibly someone else's back.

I might have been twelve, but I'd watched the Games since I was 3 and I knew what it took to win. You had to be ruthless, smart and able to cover your tracks and to kill without warning.

I decided the best place to hide was in the mountains. Everyone else would be hiding in the forest, and that was where the Careers would go hunting… and it was covered in bugs. The mountains would have tiny springs to drink from as well as plenty of places to hide in the rocks.

Hunting would be an issue, but I could easily hunt in the night and sleep through the days while everyone else went around killing each other.

It would be only too easy to finish off the rest later, when there weren't so many people around to worry about. I knew where the alliance and the Careers were so avoiding them shouldn't be a problem, 6 were dead and the others were all the small fry who were probably hiding in the bushes, eating berries until they starved.

As I settled into a hollow made by some rocks and drifted off to sleep I decided that maybe I could go into the forest and set some night lock traps, it wouldn't be too hard to trick people into thinking they were edible if you mixed them together…

**Xac Eckstorm: (District 5)**

Kara and I had stayed together since the first night, taking turns on watch duty while spending the rest of our time trying to prepare for the days ahead.

She seemed put out that we hadn't been asked to join alliance, despite her best efforts flirting, but at least with the two of us we had a chance to sleep peacefully and to rest without worrying about being attacked.

While she hunted with our small collection of rope and a knife, I was sent to collect berries.

It pissed me off that Kara was spending her time running around hunting while I spent my day pulling berries off bushes in the middle of nowhere. It had only been a couple of hours, but I was already dragging my feet when I heard the sound of someone small wandering through the forest.

I was frustrated with Kara manipulating me into doing the most boring job all day and I decided having someone else with us might at least make things slightly more manageable.

It was probably the little girl from 6, alone after her district partner got killed.

When I finally saw her, I realised it was the little girl from District 2. Apparently, they'd already booted her out for being too small and weak. She certainly seemed fragile, with mud up her legs and dirt smeared on her face when it occurred to me the Careers would have killed her if they were going to get rid of her.

I was still thinking that as she drew her hooked knife and started to throw it.

**Ronan Valkyrie: (District 2)**

I was still smiling several minutes after Claudia had dealt with that District 5 kid.

He'd been stupid enough to leave foot prints all the way to where he was picking berries, and then he was even stupid enough to come out of hiding to try and see her when she killed him.

She was brutal and I could see that she'd finally won the respect of Aphrodite and Dia, not that she needed it. I'd known her since she was a baby and she'd always been deadly. She killed two other kids at the age of 8 while training because they wouldn't let her use the battle axe.

Sociopath much.

It was a pretty clever trap, I had to admit, especially because the kid was carrying a pack filled with berries as well as a spear which seemed to have made Pippa happy enough after the girls took the tridents and I took the spear, leaving Sage with a makeshift knife-pole spear mutt and her with some scrap.

I was thinking, after they stopped leaving landmines around the plates, that the District 3 girl would be useless and we'd be using up resources for nothing, but she wasn't doing too bad.

When she stopped blatantly flirting with Sage for a few minutes, she managed to weave bags out of reeds and a telescope out of a set of glasses and a hollowed out wooden pole so that we could look into the forest from the plateau.

Aphrodite and Dia, on the other hand, were the useless ones. Sure, Dia gutted that District 7 guy and Aphrodite killed the District 10 girl, but after that all they'd done was eat, sleep and slow us down.

The lack of communication was definitely killing any hopes of a long-lasting alliance.

It seemed Sage was pretty pissed as well. He looked like he was ready to murder Dia, but I wasn't sure if that was all because of what she was doing now, the kid looked like he had some history in that department, but I wasn't _exactly_ in a position to ask him about it..

We were searching the forest for more tributes to kill when we heard the sounds of a fight somewhere near by. It sounded like it was only a few metres away, but in reality, whoever was fighting was being stupidly loud, as well as being too well matched.

"Oooooo," Claudia managed to sound out as she peeked through the branches separating us from the battle, "I sme Ist-ik welve." Apparently she still wanted revenge after they got away last time.

I saw her draw her knife, but I barely had time to register her throwing it as the District 12 girl slumped to the ground, dead.

The kid was good.

I only got one glimpse of the other terrified girl's face, Aeva or something, before she sprinted away.

Aphrodite threw several daggers after the girl and one lodged in her shoulder, but the others missed, either by miles or by a few centimetres, but she was burning red with rage and embarrassment as she picked up her daggers.

The cannon fired as the dead body was taken away in a hovercraft and Wolfgane smiled at Aphrodite's massive screw-up.

Before things got slightly more heated, there was a huge bang and Pippa's head snapped towards the plateau.

"We be-n robbe-a" she managed to grunt, which made no sense to me, but apparently Sage understood as he started to sprint towards the plateau.

When we reached the plateau, I realised that she'd said 'We're being robbed.' It seemed she'd rigged up two shields so that, if someone moved something without disengaging the trap, the two shields clashed together, making an ear-splitting ringing noise.

It appeared that the shields weren't the only part of the trap, because the body at the top was on fire, while the equipment was on the other side and the weapons were too strong to be melted by the small fire.

As the cannon fired and the body disintegrated, I recognised the axe as the battle axe Wolf had wanted that got stolen by District .

He had a childish grin on his face as he waved it around until Aphrodite slapped him in the face.

**Hopefully I should have another chapter by tonight, but you never know, so that's it for now. Sorry to: gimmeyopeetabread and Leannah for killing all of your submitted tributes, but I have to start somewhere.**

**If anyone wants to send a sponsor gift to a character, PM or review and I'll decide whether or not to give it to the tribute of your choice.**


	8. Vengeance

**Sorry to everyone whose characters I kill, I really don't want to kill any of them, but I have to.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Wolfgane Lee: (District 1)**

The bitch slapped me.

Seriously, I hated her enough already and I knew the feeling was mutual, but slapping me?

She'd gone too far this time. Trying to undermine me in the opinion of everyone else, putting red food dye in my shampoo in the Capitol, that was just pathetic, but slapping me?

Who gave a crap about the stupid alliance, I didn't want to be a part of it anyway and breaking it up just saved me some time later.

The axe was heavy, but that just made it better for killing Aphrodite.

Instead of cleaving straight through her, my wrists jarred like I'd slammed a concrete wall and I found Ronan's sword in the way of the killing strike.

"S-op!" he grunted as he tried to push the axe away, but it was too late. I was in a murderous rage as I kicked him hard below the stomach, sending him reeling away in pain as I finally dealt the killing blow.

As the body fell to the ground, I could see red mist in the corners of my eyes and my forearms were spattered with blood.

It appeared I wasn't the only one.

Sage and Pippa were about to run off the edge, towards the forest when Dia threw her spear full-force, spearing Pippa through the arm as Sage howled in anger, smashing Dia through the chest with his spear before picking up Pippa and sprinting towards the 'safety' of the forest.

"You guys rea-y are s-upid arn you?" Claudia asked, sitting atop our supplies, perfectly clean and unharmed with her usual little smile on her face.

I gave her a look of disbelief, barely noticing the hovercraft taking away Dia and Aphrodite.

"Shu- up," Ronan said, annoyed at her for the first time I'd ever seen him. "Our numbers are r-ow so bu- ere are oo ma-y o-ers. We ave oo wor- ooge-er."

Translation: "Our numbers are low but there are too many others. We have to work together. It sounded funny, trying to talk without t's, k's and several other sounds, but it was anything but a joke.

"Wha-ever," I grunted as Claudia nodded.

**Fawn Lark: (District 11)**

So far, I was fairly happy with how the Games were going, 11 dead without me having to lift a finger. I hadn't even seen anyone since entering the mountains. It seemed most of the other tributes had stayed in the forest, hiding in the trees, near the creek, instead of using the natural armour of the mountains.

There was a fair collection of mushrooms that were edible if you boiled them and no one was looking for smoke coming from the mountains so it was safe enough to start a small fire in the depths of the cave I'd found.

I hadn't been stupid enough to risk fighting the Careers by going to the Cornucopia, instead I had made a wooden tube with a small log from the forest and some tiny darts made out of stone shards to make a blow dart gun. It might not be good enough on humans, but for small game, it was fine.

When the anthem started playing, I climbed out of the cave to see which faces were shown in the sky.

Aphrodite from 1, Dia from 4, Xac from 5, Ivory from 7 and Artemis from 12. I couldn't help but wonder what happened to the two Careers. The only explanation I could think of was that they had a fight among each other because there was no way Xac, Ivory or Artemis would attack them and whoever attacked them would definitely have been killed by the two huge guys, Ronan and Wolf, or even Sage.

I knew the Careers would be out hunting the other tributes in the forest, so I didn't have to worry about killing them, but I needed to make sure I could deal with them, and that meant killing the District 3 girl.

I could deal with the fighters once they'd finished killing the others but if even one of them had a brain, it could all be for nothing.

They weren't at the plateau, where I expected them to be, but Ronan, Wolf and Claudia were, which implied that they had separated, they would never go hunting, tributes or otherwise, alone.

That meant they had to be in the forest, probably near the creek like everyone else in the forest.

As I attempted to creep through the forest, I wondered why the Careers had separated and what happened to Aphrodite and Dia. Apparently they'd killed each other, but Sage and Pippa didn't seem the type to kill them before running off.

It was a conundrum, but one I had to put out of my mind as I spotted Sage near the creek.

Pippa was pale and her face looked bloodless. There was blood all down her arm as Sage swore, trying to wipe away the blood. And staunch the wound with some moss he'd found.

I considered killing her now, but she was injured and there was no way Sage would let me get away and I couldn't kill an unwounded, 15 year old Career with some stone blow darts, no matter how hard I tried.

Finally, he managed to stop the blood flow and bandage the wound with a bracelet she was wearing.

It was only as he started to make a small campsite across the campsite from me that I realised he was shattered. His eyes were red and puffy and his movements seemed pained as he wrapped Pippa in his jacket before sitting up next to her in a tree, spear in hand as he settled in for the night.

I wondered why their little act hadn't attracted any sponsors before I realised they thought he didn't need any. He'd stopped the flow of blood, she was resting and he had food. What else could they send them, a blood transfusion?

Finally, as his eyes began fluttering every few minutes, I climbed up in the tree to get a better angle.

I could see the bandage clearly, it was a huge wound, and I blew a tiny shard straight through the bandage before running, sprinting through the forest, safe in the knowledge he'd never leave her.

**Xander Bakaari: (District 11)**

I heard the cannon as well as a howl, like a wounded animal, coming from the creek, several hundred metres away. It was hard to tell who it was; it wasn't someone I recognised, which meant it had to be one of the silent Careers. Hadn't they killed enough of themselves already?

When I realised Lexi and Ike were stirring from the noise of the cannon, I quickly moved back to my post, pretending to be still just watching the camp.

I didn't _want_ to kill the two of them, I'd gotten used to them and they seemed like the type of kids I might have been friends with at home, but this wasn't a personal matter. It was a choice of lie or death; if I didn't kill them, I would die.

As I looked at Lexi's sleeping form, I realised she was only 13. In the arena, she seemed so grown up, so mature, but in reality she was basically just a little kid. She'd never grow old, get married or have children. She would just… die.

Finally, I was satisfied they were asleep again and I drew my hunting knife. The right type of cut and they would never know what had happened, they would be at peace.

A step from the killing blow, I heard a crack.

A huge piece of bark had shattered under my weight, waking Lexi up with me holding a knife over her.

I tried to hide it, but it was too late, her eyes widened in shock as I felt a splitting pain between my ribs. I just managed to turn enough to see Ike, pushing the knife further into my chest as I fell forwards.

**Kara Sanders: (District 5)**

Another cannon, people really were trying to speed things along. With Xac gone, I was on my own, but that was how I liked it. He'd been useful enough, but he was almost totally resistant to my style of manipulation.

I'd been hiding since he died. I learned that lesson pretty quickly.

He was an idiot; I was in the bushes, watching as he walked straight into the clearing and watch the little girl's twisted expression as she threw the knife straight at his chest without a flinch of remorse.

I had quite a lot of meat from traps and snares, but I was unwilling to make a fire and draw attention to myself and I didn't know if the creek water was safe to drink. In the end, I had an acid burn down the back of my throat from all of the berry juice.

I'd begun staying above ground whenever it was possible, climbing between trees and generally avoiding people. When I saw the little District 6 girl, I was curious, but unable to kill her without getting closer.

She seemed focused on the trail in front of her, following an unknown prey.

It took ten minutes of steady walking for me to see her target.

The District 10 boy, Crato, was hiding badly, attempting to squeeze between two fallen trees while he slept.

The little girl drew a spiked piece of wood and I realised her plan, and the fact that it was going to fail drastically. The piece of wood was nowhere near big enough to kill him and all hell would break loose when he woke up.

I contemplated staying for my free entertainment, but I decided the risk wasn't worth it and bounded back across the trees.

**Morty Fellar: (District 8)**

It seemed everyone had forgotten I existed at all. They were all bunched up, killing each other in the forest and forming little vendettas while I was comfortable up in the mountains, relaxing near a hidden spring.

The mountain air seemed to be doing me some good and the air was warm enough that I only needed a jacket to keep myself warm at night. There was plenty of game to catch, even if my knife was a sharpened shard of rock, and the water was clean and refreshing.

It wouldn't surprise me if none of the other tributes even remembered I was here, I was a forgettable face. Average height, average build and an average district, I hadn't formed any bonds with other tributes and I was doing my best to avoid them, but at the same time, I hated being ignored.

All I had to do was stick it out until the final eight, maybe get something good at the feast and then I could make it. The Careers were killing each other at an impressive speed and the other tributes were mostly travelling alone.

Only 2 dead today, Pippa, the Career from District 3 and Xander from District 11.

Pippa's death surprised me; there were still way too many tributes for the Careers to start actively killing their own after whatever caused Aphrodite and Dia's deaths so it was confusing that she died.

Oh well, I guess that just means less tributes for me to deal with.

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

I hate my life.

I hate everything.

Finally, I get someone who I can trust and who I actually like, or maybe even love and Dia takes it all away from me.

Again.

I probably enjoyed killing her more than I should have, after all she was my district partner, but there was History between us. With the capital 'H.'

I was planning on wallowing for a while longer when I heard the scream.

It must have been the little girl from 6, and she was close by. I contemplated leaving her to her fate, but found my conscience making a surprise return.

Already, too many people had died. Whether I killed them or not, how could I leave a little girl to die when I could have saved her? I already blamed myself for Pippa's death; I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I survived with another death on my hands.

As I burst into the clearing, I could see Crato, holding the girl in the air with one hand, a huge shard of wood imbedded in his chest.

I threw Pippa's spear as hard as I could, desperate to save the little girl.

It hit Crato in the stomach, causing him to drop Gwyn, but it wasn't a fatal blow. He stumbled backwards and bashed into a tree before sliding backwards onto the ground.

I tried to run forward to finish him off, but I was exhausted already. I hadn't slept in days and my entire body was weak. It seemed the throw had been the final straw as I felt the blackness closing in.

I couldn't even put my hands forward to defend myself as I blacked out completely.

**Cliff-hanger! This time it's sorry to Soonersgirlie, ForeverYoung7 and asdf541 for killing all of your tributes, remember; PM or review for sponsoring. Next Chapter: Why Sage hates Dia and MUTT TIME!**


	9. Mutt Time

**MUTT TIME! By the way, in tongue-free speak, the dashes mean it's that funny 'huh' noise you get for letters you can't pronounce without your tongue.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Uncertainties:**

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

**Gwyn Young: (District 6)**

I knew it was stupid, chasing vengeance, but I felt that Gregory needed closure. He was dead at the age of twelve, and yet his murderer could live a life of waste and wealth as some sort of sick 'prize.'

I knew I risked dying by trying to fight a battle against a much bigger, better opponent, but I couldn't just stand by and let it pass. I couldn't leave Greg to be forgotten and lost in a history of past Games, just another trophy on the wall of a victor.

I also knew that I know owed my life to Sage Zawyer, a Career and trained assassin. His spear didn't quite kill Crato, but me kicking it into his heart did.

Sage was blacked out on the ground, his body limp but otherwise uninjured. I could have killed him then. I wouldn't have felt guilty; he was a Career and a killer, but somehow, I couldn't kill him.

I let him rest against a tree while I kept watch, armed with the second spear he carried on his back and eating from his supplies.

Finally he woke up, and seemed surprised to be alive. He checked himself over, as if not believing he could possibly still be alive and relatively well.

What happened to the Careers? I drew in the sand using a stick before handing it to him.

Killed each other, he wrote, Wolf killed Aphrodite, Dia killed Pippa and… I killed Dia.

When he scratched Dia's name I realised that he'd dug into the sand by about an inch further than anywhere else.

Why do you hate Dia? I scratched.

He looked doubtful, and for a moment I thought he was going to lie, before he sighed and gestured for the stick.

When I was little, he began, writing just quickly enough for me to read before he wiped it away and continued, my big sister Lanaya was the only one that mattered to me. Dia was her best friend, they went everywhere together, trained together and even went on dates together, which probably got weird. Anyway, two years ago, Dia and my sister were 15 and the volunteering dish came around to organise all the Career volunteers. Dia talks my sister into volunteering but then pulls her piece of paper out despite telling Lanaya that she was volunteering as well.

Long story short; I saw Dia pull out and Lanaya got chosen for that year's games. She was killed in her sleep by the other tribute from District 4, who won.

I could blame the guy who won, but that's stupid; it was the Games and you do what you have to do. It's Dia I blame. Lanaya never would have volunteered, he scratched ferociously, she had a _brain_.

Now, Dia kills Pippa and I couldn't face a reality where she won, so I took the easy way out and I killed her there and then.

I felt sad knowing Sage's story. I'd always seen him as the bad guy, one of the evil Careers who were coming to kill me in my sleep, but he was a real person, he had a family and feelings and I couldn't help but wonder if all the other Careers were like that, if they truly had feelings.

I couldn't kill with the knowledge that they felt, that they thought, it made me weak and I hated myself for it.

There was an awkward silence as we both sat there, until there was a crashing noise from the trees to the right.

Sage jumped up and drew his spear, clearly fearing Careers, but the cloying stench that spewed from that direction was definitely not coming from a human.

Mutts.

Crap.

And not just any mutts, but huge. Enormous. Freaking. Spider mutts.

"RU-!" howled Sage as he sprinted away from the huge spider, dripping poison as it came through the trees as though they were toothpicks, only to be blocked off by another spider, its mouth open to reveal thousands of tiny teeth with two huge venom-dripping fangs at the front of its mouth.

I realised what they were doing, they were driving us towards the plateau to an inevitable bloodbath fight, apparently not enough people had died yet to slate the thirst for blood of the Capitol's citizens.

It was as Sage tripped that I realised the fatal flaw in the spiders.

"-Age! Ere b-in," or, more accurately, 'Sage! They're blind!' I realised what I'd said was more or less incomprehensible and ducked underneath the spider and dived into the creek with Sage following soon after.

I remembered tributes hiding in the water to mask their scent in previous years and as the spiders continued on the same path they'd been on, I finally took a breath to sigh in relief.

The spiders had been as tall as I was with matted plates of hide on their skin that probably made them impervious to Sage's spear.

I can hear his ragged breathing as he falls back into the water with relief.

There's screams all over the forest and I realise the choice of mutts was perfect, almost everyone was terrified of spiders, most of them scared enough to run straight into a battlefield.

**Claudia Van Paul: (District 2)**

You can smell the mutts from a mile away, you couldn't miss that stench even if you lived in a sewer in one of the slummier districts.

Finally, I'm expecting some sort of a challenge; so far the closest I've had is trying to find that District 4 moron; Sage. It seems killing his moronic little girlfriend has set him off though, because I haven't seen him since.

Ronan and Wolf are getting dull. Sitting around, honing their weapons, I'm tempted to kill them just for something interesting to do, but not yet. I need them to take care of some of the excess tributes being driven in from the forest. If they all come at once, I'll have some difficulty trying to get rid of them all. Embarrassing, but true.

The first one to come dashing into the clearing surrounding the plateau is that pretty girl, the one trying to flirt with al the boys… Kara. I remember killing her District partner, the fool who walked into the clearing. She seems intent on making her death even easier than her partner's, still running, eyes wide with terror as she impales herself on Wolfgane's axe.

I flick the body away contemptuously as I turn to see Wolf smiling maniacally as he wipes the blood off his axe.

There's a cannon for the girl, but the mutts have already disappeared before I get to kill anyone.

It's a shame, but I realise that the Capitol viewers have had enough for the day as at least one more cannon fires somewhere in the distance. I'm frustrated that I didn't get to be part of the killing, but at the same time calmed by the knowledge that soon I'll be able to go home as District 2's youngest ever victor.

**Ezekiel "Ike" Peabody: (District 13)**

Before I got picked for the Games, I thought the thing that scared me most was small, enclosed spaces. I was massively claustrophobic which was a bad combination with District 13, but it turns out there's something that scares me more.

Huge ass spiders that drip venom off metre-long fangs just have the edge on the small spaces. If I get home, I'm never going to be claustrophobic again, I promised myself.

It was all I could do to run blindly away from the spiders, trailing Lexi behind me, let alone trying to think of what to do about killing them or running into the Careers.

I noticed a hint of copper through the trees in front of us and I realised the spiders had stopped following us and stood dead still, preventing us from returning to where we came from, but at the same time, not forcing us forwards.

Not that it mattered to me anyway.

Aeva turned to check on the spiders before realising they'd stopped and we were dead in her line of sight.

She raised her bow and the single arrow and I could only stare blankly as the arrow was launched straight at my chest.

The impact was more painful than the arrow itself, knocking the air from my lungs as I crashed backwards into the undergrowth with the arrow imbedded in my ribs.

I could see Lexi as she threw our last remaining knife with all her strength at Aeva, who was now totally defenceless.

When the cannon fired, I thought maybe I was having an out of body experience, but then I realised that I couldn't be in so much pain if I was dead.

It fired a second time, and yet still I could feel the rocks digging into my back and the arrow digging into my chest.

Lexi skidded down beside me as she wrapped her arms around me and started to sob. Up until now she'd seemed much older than 13, more mature and able to handle herself, but now I could see she was just a kid.

"u-on- go!" she cried, the tongueless equivalent of 'don't go, "Plea-h s-ay…" please… stay…

Stay…

St-…

**This chapter's a bit shorter than the others but I decided to leave it open; should Ike die or is it time for the first sponsor gift? Also, I thought I was killing characters a bit too fast so I decided to leave the opportunity to draw the story out. Sorry to CandyKiller and crazy-forever for killing your last characters but I hope you keep reading to find out who will become the victor.**


	10. A New Focus

**For the next three chapters I'll try and make sure that there's no more than a death a chapter at most and try and help you get a little closer to the other characters. If you want, PM me for who you think should win as we get into the FINAL 10.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Ash Manor: (District 8)**

I had to admit, it was pretty stupid of me to think my little plan of hiding comfortably in a cosy little cave in the mountains was going to last more than a few days, but I was still totally unprepared for the wall of huge, mutt spiders that seemed to materialise from every corner of the arena.

I hate bugs.

Even just those tiny little lady beetles the other kids used to collect back home in District 8.

Their eyes were creepy and the way the crawled all over you when you couldn't even feel them.

Needless to say, enormous, venom-dripping spiders _terrified _me.

I didn't care if anyone found me as I plunged headlong into the forest. I almost didn't care if they _killed _me, so long as I didn't have to be near the spiders anymore. The Careers could find me and I wouldn't have a care in the world, as long as the spiders were gone.

When the spiders suddenly stopped, I collapsed, panting with exhaustion.

I wanted to keep running, to escape the fangs even if they weren't lunging for my throat, but I was totally exhausted. My blind terror had burned me out faster than any amount of physical exertion could have.

It was all I could do to drag my body underneath a berry bush before I fell asleep.

**Alexandretta "Lexi" Mainoff: (District 13)**

I could feel Ike getting weaker, even as I tried to stop the flow of blood, but I knew it was useless. I needed some kind of miracle to bring Ike back from the brink.

His breathing was heavy and ragged and his heart was pounding at over 200 beats per minute. He was going to go into shock within minutes, even if the blood loss didn't kill him first.

As his breath became more laboured and his face grew paler, I noticed a flash of silver through the canopy of trees.

I was thanking whatever gods Panem still believed in as I dived towards the parachute, desperately fumbling with the soft fabric, only to feel my heart sink as fast as it had risen.

I recognised the small bottle of medicine inside.

We called it the White Light, because it was the medicine you gave people who were never coming back. When they were too far gone for anything else to save them, it took the pain away and gave the last gift anyone could give them; a quick and painless death.

I was tempted to throw the bottle away, to smash it against one of the trees and watch the contents trickle into the mud, but I knew I couldn't.

I understood the message my mentor was sending me, even if I desperately wished I didn't. There was nothing I could do anymore except to give him a comfortable death.

I tried to make him as comfortable as possible with the arrow still lodged in his ribcage but my vision blurred over with tears and I had to stop to wipe them away.

I knew I was meant to be emotionless, to be able to kill without mercy if I wanted to win, but I just couldn't. I couldn't bear losing Ike, especially knowing the leader boards in the Capitol would now have two tally marks next to the name Alexandretta Mainoff.

I closed my eyes as I pushed the vial between his now freezing lips and forced him to drink it by pinching his nose.

The tears flowed freely as the cannon rang out through the almost deserted woods as I realised there were now only nine people left.

I knew I had to move, that someone might come and investigate who had been busy killing, but I couldn't. All the memories of Ike kept flashing through my head, from when he was reaped alongside me, to the look on his face as Aeva's lone arrow punched through his chest.

Most clearly, I could remember him in the Training Centre. We were from District 13, the most tightly controlled District in all of Panem and the strict food rationing left us scrawny but healthy and basically heavily unlikely to be picked for any alliances, so we knew we had to stay together.

I was closing into my shell after being separated from my family and friends. I didn't believe I was going home, after all, what chance did I have against huge, well-trained 18 year olds, bred to kill since birth? Ike was always trying to cheer me up, trying to make me laugh even though I felt like crying.

On the train, he brought me breakfast in bed on the day I felt too depressed to get up and even pretend I had any aspirations at life. At training, he would always screw up anything I wasn't good at so that I felt better and sometimes he'd joke around just for the sake of it, chucking beetroot on our escort's white wig or drawing a permanent marker moustache on our mentors when they were asleep.

I'd never met him before the Games, and yet now I couldn't imagine life without him. He was the closest thing I'd had to a parent or even just older influence. My father died at 18 in the Hunger Games and my mother died giving birth to my half brother. Sure, there was my step-dad but he spent all his time running his little pharmacy and never had any time for me and precious little time for my half brother.

Finally, the Capitol seal came up in the sky as well as the faces of Aeva, Ike and the District 5 girl and I climbed up in the trees before settling into a fork between the branches, trying to get comfortable even though sleep evaded me.

Silently, I promised myself that I'd make it home, for Ike.

**Fawn Lark: (District 11)**

Once I was safely in a tree past the line of spider mutts, I was paranoid that the Gamemakers were out to get me.

There were three things that I hated: bugs, reptiles and mud. The mud part was kind of pathetic, but true.

The reason I was now paranoid was because I'd seen all three in one hour after dealing the final bit of damage to that District 3 girl. There were huge, terrifying spiders now surrounding the forest which apparently had led to the deaths of three tributes. Not only were they enormous, venomous bugs but they also had scaly hides, like a reptile.

I thought I'd managed to conquer my fears, but apparently not. You know those people who say that it's nice to be wrong? Well they should be feeling great now because they are so _totally_ wrong right now. Seriously, I couldn't have been more wrong or more majorly ticked off if I tried.

I decided, since I was stuck in the forest, I might as well try and look around. For once, I was actually happy that I came from the orchid vines of District 11 as I managed to climb high enough to see out over the arena.

It was only slight hints of white among the trees that gave it away, but I realised what the real point of the spider mutts was.

They now formed a ring around the forest, effectively cutting off any access to the mountains and cutting the area of the arena in half and I got the awful feeling that the arena would only grow smaller as time passed.

For a few seconds, claustrophobia overwhelmed me, but I finally regained control over my feelings as I tried to spot the other tributes.

It seemed the Careers were busy, they'd left their little perch in the centre of the arena but I could still see their equipment glinting in the moonlight. Other than that, it appeared the other tributes had enough of a brain to keep under cover and avoid being visible from the air because I fel totally alone, up in the tree with my hair ruffled by the cold night air.

The sensation reminded me of home; of having nothing to worry about but meeting the daily quota. Back when I'd had friends, family even and I didn't have to kill anyone just to stay alive.

I felt terrible about Pippa's death and the knowledge that I'd manipulated Sage into not following me by killing her.

For all I knew, she might have won, she could have been the next victor of the Hunger Games. She might have been a Career, but she had a family, a home to go back to, maybe even younger siblings hoping she'd come home to them.

But that couldn't stop me. Sure, everyone else had their own families, but so did I, and I was determined to return to them no matter what the cost. I could mourn later, but for now I had to focus on getting home, on escaping the Capitol's stupid Games.

For a moment, I even wished the rebellion 300 years ago had succeeded, but that was ancient history and who knew it wouldn't have happened the same; a new President, a new kind of 'freedom' but the same old world.

Basically, life sucked and I had to get over it.

Live one day at a time, kill one tribute at a time and maybe, just maybe I'd find my way home one day.

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

After our little adventure in the creek, we'd found a clearing in the sun, well away from the wall of mutt spiders which had retreated so that we were locked in with the rest of the tributes. Gwyn had fallen asleep immediately, curling up in a little ball in the sun with her thumb in her mouth.

I wish I could do that, just fall asleep, no fear of the dangers of the forest and the tributes themselves. She seemed so peaceful, just a little girl trying to escape from the world around her, as though she wasn't being forced to fight to the death and to trust a mysterious teenaged killer from another district. As though she hadn't watched her friend being killed by another human being before her eyes. As though she'd never sought revenge on his killer and stabbed a spear through his heart.

Despite my eyelids desperately trying to shut, just for a few seconds, I was determined to protect her. She was still so young and so innocent while I was broken and empty.

I'd watched my sister die on national TV, but then I'd had somewhere to focus my hatred. I could picture a face, a person and an end, but now that I'd wrought my revenge, I had nothing left. I was almost happy when Dia and I were reaped, I probably would have volunteered even if I hadn't been chosen, but now I'd had my revenge I felt stupid. I'd been blinded to the future by my thirst for revenge, but now that the haze had cleared, I looked at my future and saw nothing.

When I ran away into the forest with Pippa, I could see a future, even if it was just a few days ahead, a few days near the creek, but then Dia took that and crushed it as well.

I hadn't realised I was holding onto a stick until it cracked loudly as I grimaced in frustration.

Dia didn't kill Pippa.

The words seemed to appear out of nowhere on the sand in front of me and I stared at them blankly, wondering if insanity had finally caught up with me, until I realised Gwyn was awake.

When she realised she had my attention she continued; you did stop the bleeding, it wasn't Dia's spear wound that killed her, it was someone else.

Maybe, even just a few minutes earlier, I would have relished the prospect. Finally, I had someone else to seek revenge on, a new purpose to the Games, but no.

I'd had my revenge, I'd got what I came for and it had left me empty and uncertain. I wasn't going to fall into that trap again. I'd accepted Pippa's fate as much as I had Dia's and I didn't want to be like that again, driven by hate without watching as I became more the monster than the ones I chased around my head. I hadn't killed for reason, I'd killed to hold onto the past and try and convince myself that I was doing the right thing by Lanaya.

Now that the red mist had cleared, I was faced with the uncomfortable realisation that Lanaya never would have wanted me to seek revenge, least of all on Dia. I could blame the Capitol, the Gamemakers or anyone else, but it wouldn't change the past and it wouldn't wash the fresh blood off my hands.

As Gwyn started to write, I kicked the stick away before writing NO with my finger. Don't tell me I scratched desperately as I kicked sand over the words she'd written.

She shrugged before curling up in a ball again, but I knew she wasn't asleep.

As the night grew longer, her breathing finally settled and I couldn't help myself from looking at what she'd written. Even with the sand I'd kicked over the top, the two words were still legible.

Fawn Lark.

Despite my best efforts, I found myself trying to think of revenge and I desperately gripped the mutt spear as tightly as could until my knuckles turned white, attempting to hold myself together.

Finally, after hours of tossing and turning emotionally, I came to a decision. My final focus would be to protect Gwyn.

The thirteen-year old shouldn't be forced to kill and to fight to the death. I knew there were other twelve and thirteen year olds out, still alive in the arena, but fate had stuck me with this one and I was determined to protect her at all costs.

As I settled in a hollow formed by tree roots, preparing to keep watch for the night, I didn't feel quite so empty.

**Wow, only one death,** **I'm impressed with myself. Next chapter I'm aiming to not kill anyone which is a challenge, especially for me. We still need to check in with Morty and the Careers but then things are going to get interesting again. Sorry Current Rainbow, but that's the end of Ike.**


	11. There Will Be BLOOD

**I promise I won't kill anyone this chapter. Next chapter is a totally different matter and the chapter after that's the feast so then there might be a few less tributes but I'll try to make sure it lasts for at least 5 more chapters. At least; hopefully more.**

**If it offends anyone, I apologise in advance for Wolf's colourful vocabulary… oh wait, and Claudia's as well. (Any REAL swear words have been omitted, it's just… colourful) I also apologise in advance for my awful pun. (Try spotting it)**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Morty Fellar: (District 8)**

Only nine left.

Wow, that was fast. In reality it had been five days but it seemed like it was only a few hours ago I was running up into the mountains.

Soon they'd start interviewing our families for the TV cameras. I wonder what my family would say about me if I lasted until the final 8. They'd probably say I deserved it for hanging out with Dev and those small time gangsters back home. Then there would be the feast and I couldn't help but wonder what anyone needed. Everyone who was still alive had to be capable of catching their own food and there was a supply of fresh water all around the arena.

I shivered and burrowed further into my t-shirt in the cold night air. It was a funny reminder of home, in such a totally un-home-like place.

I don't know about anyone else, but home wasn't in an arena with a bunch of bloodthirsty murderers who I had to kill. Home wasn't alone in a tree avoiding huge, potentially ravenous spider mutts. Home wasn't in pitch black darkness with only the whistling of the trees for company. Home wasn't having my every move watched by bloodthirsty Capitol viewers hungering for my blood.

I probably wasn't even getting air time. Who wants to watch a kid freezing to death in a tree without any blood or any gore?

Wait… cold?

I'd been warm for every minute of the competition up until now, so there was no natural reason I should have been cold, but I was _freezing_. Apparently making us uncomfortable when we weren't actively killing each other was some sort of sadistic entertainment for the Gamemakers.

I couldn't believe I'd lost my jacket up in the mountains when I was running away from the spiders. Guess I know what I'm getting if I live until the feast.

I could hear footsteps crunching through the leaf-coated ground and instantly reached for my stone knife.

As I prepared to launch the knife, I almost fell forwards out of the tree as I recognised the little girl from 13. She wasn't dead yet? Seriously?

I was about to kill her anyway when I realised, if she was still alive now, she had to have something going for her. It couldn't be strength but there were any number of other reasons she was still around.

Still, that just made her a more dangerous target. Little kid or not; I couldn't let anyone stand in the way of me and victory. I had to win. No one else could take that from me, it was my only choice.

Sure I'd made some bad decisions in District 8, but that didn't mean I deserved to die.

I threw the knife full-force at her chest; but rock wasn't made to fly.

It missed by about half a foot as Lexi whirled around. She grabbed the knife before sprinting away, clearly not willing to get into a fight at this stage of the game.

I let myself hang from the trees by my legs, like a bat, as I held my head in my hands.

I really was a moron wasn't I?

Not only had I convinced myself that I deserved to win, but I also just lost the last piece of equipment I had for no reason. I could always follow the girl and ambush her, but where did that leave me, even if I did kill her?

A murderer who killed a little girl for his own gain… I sounded like a career.

Why did it have to be me?

**Wolfgane "Wolf" Lee: (District 1)**

I was getting sick of the Career alliance. We'd barely seen any action in days except for that District 5 girl and yet Claudia and Ronan were sitting on their asses doing sod all.

My battleaxe was almost free of blood, even it was getting bored and it was a freaking _axe._ We had plenty of supplies and were living pretty well, but the other two were waiting for the other tributes to kill each other so they were in the best place to trap the others at the feast.

Finally, after two nights of no deaths and no action, I decided the alliance was over. It wasn't as though anyone could talk me out of it, even if they wanted to.

I picked up my axe, a jacket and one of the small first aid kits and walked off into the forest as quietly as possible, which wasn't very. If Claudia, who had demonically powerful senses, had heard me, she didn't show it.

For a moment I feared for Ronan's safety, before blowing it off. Why the hell did I care? If he died, I was one tribute better off and one tribute closer to going home.

I was a lone Wolf anyway, I wasn't made for travelling in groups and having to 'organise our decisions'. I wanted to be where the blood was, letting the Capitol watch the strength of the 375th victor of the Hunger Games, Wolfgane Lee.

I decided it wasn't much of a risk to camp out near the river; it wasn't as if anyone was strong enough to challenge me anyway.

I realised someone was following me about one hundred metres from the river. It wasn't that they made any noise, they were eerily silent in the forest; it was more just that my hunter's senses became aware that I was being watched.

When they finally exited the trees, the first thing I knew was that they had a knife at my throat, they were definitely fast.

The only problem was; I was faster.

As they breathed down my neck, preparing to slit my throat, I had my hunting knife pressed into their stomach.

Apparently they had a brain because my throat still wasn't slit a few seconds later as they ran the math in their head. Could they slit my throat in the time it took for me to stab them through the stomach? If I stabbed them, would they have time to slit my throat or not?

Eventually, they obviously decided that it was too great of a risk and pulled away. At that point, I could have drawn my battleaxe with my left hand and done away with them, but after their eerie tracking only a few seconds before, I turned to look at them before risking such a stupid move. My shave with death had definitely sobered up my bloodlust.

It was the girl from District 11, and at only 5'4 I was almost ashamed of myself for letting her get an edge over me.

I still had my battleaxe at the ready, slung over my back, but I had the feeling the girl would be pretty fast at sticking that knife in me and, despite it's massive strength bonus, the axe was not a fast weapon on any scale, especially not one that included the girl facing me.

My brain finally decided to come to a decision as I reached out my hand for her to shake. Even though I didn't want to, I'd probably need someone to cover my back at the feast now I'd pissed off District 2 and, from what I knew of the remaining tributes, the only other tribute whose strength I had any respect for was Sage and there was no way I was letting that freaking traitor watch my back.

It seemed the girl was thinking the same thing as she grudgingly shook my hand.

It definitely wasn't a matter of trust, but it was a respect and matter of needing the other and I got the idea that things were going to turn _really_ bad soon. The feast was always a death trap, but with the psychotic Claudia laying a trap, things were not looking good for the next few days and if I wanted to win I had to accept help; no matter how deadly the form it came in was.

**Claudia Van Paul: (District 2)**

From the way Ronan reacted when he realised Wolf had run off in the middle of the night you'd think someone had taken his first born son. I mean, Wolf was always sharpening that stupid axe of his and didn't give a crap about actually trying to think things through; he just wanted to go smash someone's head in.

Well now he could, and the sooner he did, the sooner I got to kill the rest of those hick-district morons.

I had to admit The Feast Plan (it deserved the capital letters) was pretty nefarious, even for me. Ronan didn't even realise he was running to his own death by helping me out. He'd been good to me; I might even remember his name after the Games, if he was lucky, but no one was going to take my place as victor.

The spider mutts might have been terrifying, but it seemed that once they'd formed the barrier, they had orders not to attack any tributes- yet. Litres and litres of venom, just waiting to be collected and used on our unsuspecting feast-goers.

Just a little cut and they'd be on the ground frothing for sure.

Until the time came, Ronan and I had to resort to hiding out and waiting for our opportunity. Although it was my plan, I had to admit it was dead boring, all those targets out there, just waiting to be killed and I had to sit in a shelter with Mr. No Deodorant.

I mean come on, couldn't he at least bathe?

I would have cut his head off then if it weren't for the fact I'd never get the stench of dead body out of the little shelter we'd created. I couldn't even tell him how bad he smelt because of my stupid tongue.

Finally I decided to sleep and let the other tributes kill each other or whatever else they did for fun.

**Gwyn Young: (District 6)**

I had to admit, I was still confused as to why Sage was protecting me. I enjoyed the company and the security, but he was a Career, why wouldn't he kill me as soon as he saw me?

I wasn't strong; I wasn't brave; if anything, I was keeping him back from winning the Games. He could be out in the forest, hunting the other tributes but instead he stayed up all night watching over me.

I'd woken up to find myself tucked up in the hollow made by some tree roots with his jacket over me like a blanket, despite the fact he must have been freezing. There was steam rising off him in the chilly morning air and I could see patterns in the morning dew where he'd been defending the tree. He lay against the biggest root near me, his eyelids fluttering, spear at the ready when I finally got up.

I wanted to thank him, to tell him what it meant to me that someone had looked after me when I felt like my world was ending, but I couldn't.

In the end, I could only stare blankly at the ground.

I didn't realise what I was staring at until Sage moved forward and picked up the jasmine blossom that had been nestled in between some bushes and the tree roots.

I drew the ancient character for jasmine in the sand as Sage twirled it in his fingers. It was funny, seeing my favourite flower here. It was something that I associated with home, with peace and comfort and yet I found it somewhere where I was so totally _un_comfortable and afraid.

Sage held out the flower and as I took it, I felt like I'd connected with him somehow, despite not being able to thank him for watching me.

I offered the jacket, but he just shook his head as I realised how terrible he looked. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot and his face looked haggard. He'd aged ten years in just a few days since I'd first met him in the Training Centre.

The other Careers were busy showing off at their best stations, but he'd broken off from the pack to practice archery, not a strong point for any of the others.

I'd joined him after a while and we both practiced silently, until finally, Sage got a dead-on bullseye. He'd yanked the arrow out, then waved it at me and grinned. I'd thought at the time that he was just being arrogant, but now I wondered if he was just trying to ease the tension at the archery station.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

Career supplies day guard? I scratched, trying to get him to understand in the smallest number of words possible.

Sage frowned before replying; three left… maybe one?

One guard. It shouldn't be too hard to outsmart one Career guard; even that little girl couldn't exactly be brainiac material at only twelve and I wouldn't let her guard my luggage. It didn't have to be big stuff, or even food, but just a few little tools would make life a million times easier, and with Sage's help I was confident that it wasn't too risky.

After all, I wasn't… unfamiliar with theft.

I knew Sage thought I was innocent, but that's not the story my third drawer back home said.

**I'm not a huge fan of how I started the whole Wolf and Fawn thing so I might rewrite it, but for now they're in an alliance, leave it at that.**

**In fact, I'm not too happy with this chapter at all but anyway please R&R.**

**Next chapter, back to killing people. (Only one… or two)**


	12. The Birds and the Wolves?

**Hey, sorry this has taken so long; I've been busy with other stuff. Anyway I hope you enjoy it. FEASTY TIME! Anyone spot the dodgy pun? Hint: Wolf's POV. This time it's spot the Lord of the Rings reference, if you can I'll give the character of your choice a sponsor gift. Same goes for the pun in the previous chapter.**

**As for Fawn and Wolf's language, kiddies, do not use this at home.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

My face was starting to hurt as all the mud I'd caked onto it dried. Gwyn and I were hiding in the trees about ten metres away from the Careers' camp with our jackets pulled tight over our heads and mud covering any skin that could give us away.

You sure? I carved quickly into the dirt.

Gwyn swallowed nervously before biting her lip and narrowing her eyes as she nodded determinedly.

I was still worried about letting the 13 year old join me in robbing the Careers' supplies, even if they weren't at the camp, but I had a plan. If the Careers came back, I'd show myself so Gwyn had a chance to run, even if it killed me at least our plan wouldn't cost Gwyn her life.

Spear clenched tightly in my fist, I darted towards the Cornucopia. The supplies were stacked messily around the golden horn with food carefully packed to deter the scavengers.

We had to be careful about what we took or Claudia wouldn't show us any mercy. She was nuts enough already without an excuse to kill me. I still remembered how she'd killed that District 12 girl with barely a sound or a movement. And she was still using the same knife… seriously, that's filthy but I guess the dead can't complain.

We ducked down behind the horn as we started riling through their supplies. Food had to stay, that was the sort of thing they'd keep a track of, but other basics were ours for the taking. A lighter, bandage, rope, torch and an empty Hessian bag later and we were satisfied. There was warmth, medicine, food and light. We could use the rope for snares and fish nets and then we could hide out without having to worry about needing supplies for quite some time.

I'd stuffed the equipment into the bag when Gwyn suddenly froze beside me. I gave her a questioning look in the dark as she pointed towards the forest.

Claudia and Ronan had just entered the corner of the clearing and Ronan was holding his hands at arm's length as if he thought they were poisonous. I thought this was weird, especially for Ronan, when I realised he was right. His arms were covered in venom to the stage at which they were literally _dripping _with the stuff.

I desperately wanted to run back to our campsite in the tree roots, but as we inched around the Cornucopia to avoid Claudia and Ronan, I realised that we would have to run in the direction they'd come from… dripping in poison. Great.

As soon as they were on the opposite side to us, Gwyn sprinted into the trees as I guarded her back.

We kept running for a few more metres until we ran straight into a clearing filled with barrels. I had to admit, I was definitely curious.

It only took the smell coming out of one poorly sealed barrel to work out they were filled with spider mutt venom. Not a good sign at the best of times; but with Claudia, it meant near-certain death.

I wanted to run away and play it safe, but Gwyn seemed to have a plan as she snatched the rope and the lighters out of the bag. Dipping one end of the rope in the open barrel, she put a finger to her lips as she slowly inched backwards into the trees.

I followed uncertainly, before realising how stupid that was. I decided I was going to protect Gwyn until the end, and then I was suddenly too paranoid to even actually try _getting _therefirst. I was a wreck. I wanted time to try and sort myself out, but I knew that was never gonna happen.

About twenty metres later and Gwyn finally stopped and ducked down onto the ground.

She was holding the lighter against the rope, but it was wet from all the dew and refused to catch light. Her only hope was the dry inner part, but my spear was pretty much blunt and I was acutely aware of the fact that Ronan and Claudia wouldn't leave those barrels unguarded for long.

She was getting desperate when a red square of plastic floated down from the sky and settled in the grass. Red was the colour for District 6; each District had their own colour of parachute to work out who had sent the gift, otherwise people tended to get confused by sponsor gifts leading to some awkward intra-alliance murders.

It also made it much easier to tell where your enemies were if they weren't careful.

Gwyn was still desperately trying to light the rope as I pulled apart the plastic to reveal a mechanical knife. They were basically normal partly-serrated hunting knives but they had tiny hydraulics which caused the blade to move back and forth in a sawing action without any effort on the part of the user.

I tossed her the knife as she sawed through the rope before setting it alight.

She stuffed her fingers in her ears, and not a moment too soon as there was a deafening bang followed by a shockwave that probably felled trees closer to the barrels.

Who'd have thought the venom would go up like propane jelly?

Word to the wise: never underestimate the power of a 13 year old with a lighter.

**Claudia Van Paul: (District 2)**

The force of the blast sent flames scalding across my face and charring my back, but I barely noticed the pain.

I was so uncontrollably angry that I felt nothing. I'd just watched my future explode all over the arena. All my plans, my grand schemes for death and all it took was a spark and it all exploded.

As I waited for a cannon that never came, my blood boiled as I realised whoever had destroyed my dreams had escaped, and I'd never know who they were.

I span around to see Ronan staring at the plumes of smoke, his face unscarred after he'd hidden behind the Cornucopia, and suddenly it was so easy to find someone to blame.

_He_ was the one who set up the barrels, _he_ was the one who suggested the clearing and _he _was the reason we left the clearing at all.

I smiled as his eyes widened in terror as I drew my knife. He had no time to pick up a weapon, he'd taken them off instead of get them 'dirty' with venom like a little baby.

Well he wasn't going to go home crying.

He'd be in a cold, wooden box.

As I drew the knife out of his chest, I laughed to the world as I kept the knife at the ready, dripping blood as I staggered into the forest.

I followed the slight burn trail to the forest until I came to a tiny piece of red plastic, blown by the wind from wherever the blast started. They probably ripped it by accident, stuffing the rest into a bag and running.

District 6… hah.

I never would've thought that little girl would last to here, let alone blowing up my venom.

There was a certain eau du Sage about this as well. No one else would smell so much like mud, fish and leather and would think to cover themselves with mud or have the nerve to rob me even after what happened to those other stupid tributes that crossed me. His trail was growing cold, but that scent was a far cry from the pine and animal smell of the forest.

Knife at the ready, I was chasing the death of Sage Zawyer.

He'd destroyed my hopes, my dreams… my precious.

He would die for it.

**Fawn Lark: (District 11)**

Kudos to whoever made that bang, I was impressed, and there was no cannon. They must have made it out of there in time and that took skill.

Then there was finally a cannon, but I didn't think it was the saboteurs, if they got away, they got away; there's no way they would stick around long enough to get captured that quickly.

The cannon was followed by a bone chilling laugh that could only come from one person; Claudia, only now she'd _really _gone insane.

Shit, that kid scared me.

Supposedly Wolf was on watch, but I knew we'd both be sleeping with one eye open. Despite shaking on the agreement of an alliance, at least until the end of the feast, it wasn't as though you could trust a cold-hearted murderer who would have to kill you in order to win.

Finally, the Capitol anthem played and I had an excuse to move around without Wolf killing me with that axe he practically slept with, shit that kid was weird too, but at least he was sane.

The stupid anthem took even longer to play than usual because I was anxious to see who it was that the nut job had whacked this time.

Ronan's grinning face appeared and for once, I admitted I was truly terrified. Not only had Claudia totally gone nuts, but she'd even killed her only ally and district partner, the only one who'd ever treated her like the human she wasn't.

"Hello, hello remaining tributes!" boomed the voice of the announcer, Polaria Easters, "I hope you're enjoying yourselves as I call you all to a great and sure to be wondrous feast!"

What a git, seriously. Enjoying ourselves?

What kinda crap was he smoking when he started watching the Games.

But still, that meant Wolf and I had to get ready. I had my blow darts in a pouch tied to my belt and the tube at the ready as I made sure Wolf's knife was comfortable in my hands while he hefted his axe.

I'd miss him when I had to kill him. It might have been a life or death situation, but I liked the little skirmish we'd had in the forest before we joined forces. After that, he'd built the fire for me and set up a tiny shelter by stringing a blanket between two trees with our little fire out in front.

His hair was slowly growing out again, despite being cut short before the interviews and I had to admit he wasn't bad looking. I tried to stop myself from getting too attached before figuring I needed some distracting and ignoring my own pathetic attempts at stopping my thoughts.

When we reached the edge of the trees, the Cornucopia had vanished and in its place was a table with eight backpacks on it.

1,2,4,6,8,8,11,13.

Each a different size, I was practically drooling at the thought of getting food in mine.

Wolf's cooking wasn't exactly 'romantic dinner' level; he killed a mole rat, shoved a stick up its ass then stuck it in the coals until it blackened. Trust me; it didn't improve the taste.

It seemed no one was prepared to run out into the open first so Wolf and I shared a look before running into the clearing.

Apparently bow users were thin on the ground because no one took a pot shot at us as Wolf slammed against the table to stop himself before swirling just in time to take out another tribute using us as meat shields.

I could hear Wolf attempt to swear under his breath as he realised it was the little girl from District 8.

I grabbed both packs as another tribute came running from the other side. I could only watch as Wolf leapt over the table and took a huge swing.

The kid ducked under the blade and I recognised the District 8 boy… Marty? As Wolf howled in agony. He'd expected to have his axe stopped by flesh and bone, instead he lost control, slamming the axe into his own side.

I'd hoped that I could stay to pick off more tributes, but I realised Wolf wouldn't last.

He threw his axe full-force at the fleeing kid, but it was made without wings for a reason.

It missing hopelessly, imbedding itself into a tree as I pulled Wolf away, back towards our campsite as the blood poured from his side.

As I laid him against the tree, I searched desperately through the packs I'd taken from the feast, hoping for some sort of medicine to save him. My pack was full of preserved food, enough to last us several days while his contained a sword, probably meant to compliment his now-lost axe and some knives.

The thought crossed my mind that he was the competition, that it would be better for me if he died, but I couldn't do it.

In just a few hours, I'd gotten to like his silent company; in fact, I might have liked him even since the Training Centre. We'd met up on the roof and he'd shown me the parts of the Capitol and talked about home.

Even though he didn't talk much, he'd made me laugh, but I'd forgotten the conversation until now… when it only made me sadder.

Finally, like a call to a fairy godmother, a single tear produced a flutter of fabric from the sky.

The dark green parachute landed by my side as I ripped it open.

Inside was a sterile pack containing a needle and stiches, apparently even adding a bandage was too expensive. He moaned as it entered his skin, but his face was white and clammy and he was unconscious by the third stich.

When I was done, I ripped off his shirt and padded it against the wound before using his belt and jacket to cover the remaining bleeding.

It felt like hours later when he groaned and his eyes fluttered open and I couldn't help myself.

I leapt forward and kissed him on the lips.

**Two deaths this chapter, possibly one or two the next then it gets to the serious final contestant stage. Don't worry, Fawn and Wolf aren't going anywhere any time soon and Wolf is sooooo not getting that axe back.**

**Anyone got the pun and the LotR reference?**

**Sorry to bookandmusic97 and kitsuspirit but I hope you guys keep reading until the bitter end. Trust me, it's bitter.**


	13. Different Types of Insanity

**I think I'll keep this chapter down to one death, but I warn you, the next chapter is going to be really sad and that's coming from me, the one who killed the other 19 tributes.**

**I just realised Lexi's profile said she swears a lot. Kiddies, do not try copying her at home. Actually, let's make this a universal language warning: MY CHARACTERS LIKE TO SWEAR. GET OVER IT.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Alexandretta "Lexi" Mainoff: (District 13)**

After all of the action with the District 8s and Fawn and Wolf's weird alliance, it was fairly easy to creep in and get my hands on the bad labelled '13' in neat block letters.

I was fairly warm with the jacket from the District 9 girl as well as my own serving as a sleeping bag up in the trees, but I was running low on food. I hadn't really noticed how much I was relying on Ike's preparation of berries and small game for survival.

I hadn't taken anything off his body, even though it would have helped me. I couldn't bear to think about touching his lifeless body to take what little he had left. I still felt like a giant hole had been ripped out of my chest where my heart was, leaving me empty.

Inside the bag was a quiver full of arrows to match the bow left on Aeva's body. I was annoyed that I wouldn't get any food until I had a chance to hunt, but at the same time I was happy. Arrows would last much longer than food as well as having… other uses.

Victory seemed so close, with only six other tributes left, but I hated myself for thinking it. For wishing the deaths of so many others. For going home without Ike.

I finally caught a rabbit after hours of hunting but when I cooked it, it seemed flavourless and raw. I could remember Ike's rabbit meat… cooked in grease and berry juice, it tasted better than even the Capitol food.

Capitol food… it seemed like a mirage, a dream that never really came true after so much had happened in the arena.

But once again, the faces of Ike's family swam into focus. I knew he was considered a vagrant by most of the snootiest District 13 families, but I'd seen him with his little sister.

Laira. She looked a lot like him, pale with chocolate brown hair. She'd led him around the shops, pulling him along in a wake of toy stores and snack food. He'd bought her a tiny teddy bear with a pink dress and I could remember her clutching it as he walked on stage, her eyes wide with fear.

I knew what it felt like. She would have stayed up all night, waiting for Ike to come back in the door, to find out it was all just a nightmare.

But he didn't.

He couldn't.

And he never would.

I felt like I'd failed that little girl. I felt like I'd failed Ike. I felt like I'd failed everyone. If there was a tomorrow, I wasn't sure I wanted to be there to see it.

Crap. I could fill the tears filling my eyes as my vision blurred over. I promised myself I wouldn't cry, but I guess I could add failing myself to that list.

Shit… I couldn't even see through the wall of tears, tracing through the dirt on my face.

Finally, I climbed and tucked myself high up in a tree and consigned myself to another late night, crying myself into unconsciousness.

**Claudia Van Paul: (District 2)**

More cannons, good.

Less killing.

Plenty of fun at least.

Still… shame

Sage Zawyer from District 4 must die.

Others don't matter.

Sage. Die.

Wolf die.

Need revenge.

Must kill traitors.

No more precious.

Must kill.

Revenge.

Kill.

Die.

**Wolfgane Lee: (District 1)**

Man, I couldn't stop grinning for hours. Fawn had turned scarlet when my eyes had opened, but I had to say, I was pretty surprised o find her making out with me too. Did she even know I was waking up?

I hope so, otherwise that's massively creepy.

I knew eventually, I'd have to worry about what happens if we get to the final two, but for now I was pretty happy. Looking into her eyes, even if one was different to the other, I wished I could stay with her…

Reality check: I couldn't.

But what I could do was pretend.

So we did.

I spent the day chopping wood with my new sword and making a neat little camp. There was a jacket as a rain shield so we could huddle together with our little fire covered in a tepee of twigs and rocks as well as pillows made of bags stuffed with food.

Fawn had been doing the cooking after my little… experiment.

Even I had to admit that mole rat tasted like I was eating roasted shit on a stick. Her's wasn't exactly fantastic either, but it was at least just 'crap' instead of baked shit like mine.

My ribs still killed every time I moved, but at least I didn't seem permanently damaged.

I'd visited my axe's… burial site in the tree. The wood had expanded in the rain, leaving the axe stuck firm. I was pissed off, but I knew Fawn hated it so I pretended to be fine to keep her happy. I already sounded whipped and I'd only known her… what, eight days? Ten?

When I got back to camp, Fawn was gone.

I looked all over, I tried looking in the trees, I wandered around the campsite; still no Fawn.

As a cannon boomed in the distance, I gave up going incognito.

If Fawn was that cannon, I wanted to be there, before her body got sucked up by a hovercraft and dumped in some Capitol grave. They'd probably dress her corpse in some stupid stylist's dress.

Maybe I was insane for loving Fawn at a time like this, but I didn't care. Not insane like Claudia, but good insane. Good insane... like eating peanut butter and jelly or bungee jumping. The type of insanity that made me wish I'd find Fawn safely back at camp.

Still hoping for the best but expecting the worst, I finally found Fawn.

Her foot was caught in some mutated bear trap. I wanted to vomit as I saw the pool of blood running through the grass and pooling near my feet. Her ankle was twisted out of its socket and I could see bone through the torn muscle.

But it wasn't her cannon.

If it weren't for her ankle, I would have sighed with relief, but she was unconscious and as white as a sheet.

Marty… Minty… Morty, the District 8 kid was dead on the ground, Fawn's stone knife imbedded in his chest. I felt a moment of pride, before I shut it down. He'd escaped me and lost me my axe, but if she didn't recover, he would have lost me Fawn for nothing.

I was about to pull the trap in half, but I realised it would start the bleeding again. I tried to think back to training, to how to save her, all the while, acutely aware each second was costing her.

When the oil dropped out of the sky, I was confused until I remembered my lighter.

Years ago, in training, the instructors had talked about safe amputation. If you need to stop profuse bleeding; cauterise the site with flames.

I had to look away as I poured the oil onto the bear trap, only to have to look back again as I pulled the bear trap open and set the oil aflame.

I held her in my arms as I took her back to our camp.

She was freezing cold, despite the fire and I was worried. She was still deathly pale an hour later.

Finally she woke up, and I had to watch as her will shattered. She looked at her… stump in agony. I could see her spirit breaking as she tried moving something that wasn't there, like maybe it was just an illusion.

I heard a cannon followed by an animal-esque howl, but I didn't care as I held Fawn close.

I could see the tears streaming down her face in the moonlight and I felt like breaking down as well.

I knew as well as she did, even if she survived a few more days; she was already dead no matter what.

**Sorry this is another short one, I've been REALLY busy and I didn't want to keep this chapter waiting too long. The next one should be sooner, longer and sadder. Sorry Skyclaw, I know you've read all of my other Hunger Games story and this one, but that's it for Morty.**

**Anyone remember who howls like an animal? If so, you get a gift for a character of your choice and you might know who's dead. Also, if you can find the line from the song 'Forever Young' hidden in there, you get another gift.  
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**Only five left, but who's cannon did Wolf just hear?**

**Keep reading and find out next chapter in the 375****th**** Hunger Games.**


	14. The Broken Beast

**Final 5 time! No one picked out the line from "Forever Young" but grats to packman23 for working out who howled… and the rest of you just have to wait.**

**Name every object of Sage's after the end of this chapter including scars and things he has or has lost recently for a sponsor gift of your choice.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

**Uncertain Tributes:**

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Claudia Van Paul: (District 2)**

Fish.

Leather.

Mud.

Sage.

Happy.

Sage die.

I kill.

Kill Sage.

Kill.

Die.

Sage kill.

Die.

Kill Sage.

Die Sage.

Kill.

Die.

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

I left Gwyn in our little hollow as I wandered off into the trees. I really didn't want to leave her alone, but I needed time. Time to… think and try and untangle the mess my life had been these last few days.

First, Pippa. Finally, I knew what had happened to her; that the killer was still alive and I hadn't done anything. Did that mean I was an awful person? Should I have avenged the girl I loved?

But no. Killing didn't solve death just like lighting a match didn't solve a bushfire. I was certain I'd done the right thing; especially not now she was with Wolf. Making him like me, so broken and dead inside wouldn't solve my own problems.

I regretted not even trying to get our packs, but either I could find out what was in the packs if I survived, or it wouldn't make a difference anyway.

But the latter was the most likely one; I'd already decided that I was going to die.

That left the matter of Gwyn.

I punched a tree as I tried to work out what to do with her.

Bad idea, it turns out punching pointy bark hurts, who'd have thought?

If I had to kill to let her win, was it worth it?

If I just let myself die, wasn't it better to let nature run its course and work out who was going to win. Could I really bring myself to kill for Gwyn, just for the sake of my guilt?

I wished I was back in District 4, on one of the few shores not covered in huge ports and crates of stinking fish stacked up in marketplaces along the shore. The Capitol called it 'romantic' and made a fuss over the water and the boats. Romantic my _ass_.

What's really romantic is finding a secluded cove, alone.

A few years ago, I found two huge rock formations jutting out into the ocean. There was a natural stairway to the bottom and a small raised section of rock that narrowly avoided the full force of even the highest waves.

The water crashing against the rocks blocked out the outside world, while the calmest seas created the perfect sunset while the seagulls flew back to their nests up in the rocks.

I wished I could have taken Pippa there. I remembered a competition a few years back; they wanted some District 4 kids to compete for the chance to be part of a development project in District 3. If I'd thought more about my life before I was about to die, maybe I could've met Pippa at her home and things could have been… I don't know… better?

But of course, that wasn't going to happen, was it?

I felt the scream before I heard it.

Gwyn.

No. NO. Come on, stupid legs, run faster!

I drew the gold-tipped spear that Pippa had fought with; the one she made me was slowly coming apart, but it was all I had to remember her by.

As I broke through the trees, I jumped into the air with the spear held in front of me. Claudia's face whipped around with a demonic grin plastered all over her face as I felt the spear smack into the ground as she whirled away.

She tried gripping the dagger to kill me, but it was already slick with blood.

With an inhuman strength, fuelled by rage, I ripped the spear from the ground and swung it in a wide arc as Claudia flipped back and sprinted into the trees, still with that sadistic smile.

I threw the spear as hard as I could, but I didn't follow her.

Gwyn lay on the ground, her shirt soaked with blood from a stomach wound. Claudia was too much of a freaking bitch to even kill her properly, instead leaving her to bleed out in the forest.

I ripped my shirt in half, desperately padding it against the wound, but in the back of my mind I knew it was too late.

I realised I could hear a faint scratching as I looked towards her right hand, scratching faintly in the sand, marking a trail in crimson blood.

Sage… there was a pause as she took a ragged breath, win for me… the others might be fighting for their… lives but I know… you… have a… good… heart… win… Sage… for… me…

Her left hand slowly raised the dagger, her hand shaking and white like a ghost as I took the handle in my left hand.

The cannon fired and I couldn't help it; I howled like a broken beast. I couldn't yell, I couldn't even scream without a tongue and all I could do was howl. There was no other noise, it was like the forest fell silent for me and just me. No birds, no tributes, no whistling of the wind as I kept calling for something, anything to happen. For me to die, or for the cannon to be wrong, for Gwyn to wake up, her green eyes to flutter open like they had on so many occasions.

But they didn't.

I ran out of air, out of energy to even finish howling to the stars for a miracle.

All I could do was carve the symbol Gwyn had shown me for 'jasmine' into the back of my hand so I'd never forget her as I slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

A pale blue parachute came drifting from the sky, bearing a glistening gold trident.

Bit late for that wasn't it? Was the last thing I thought (albeit with more swear words) as I collapsed into unconsciousness on the ground.

**Alexandretta "Lexi" Mainoff: (District 13)**

Wow. That kid must have been howling for at least an hour. I couldn't even hear the Capitol anthem before they showed the little District 6 girl's grinning face in the sky.

Final 5… huh.

I never thought I'd last it out this long. Just a few days ago there'd been almost as many 12 and 13 year olds as there had been older kids. How stupid was I to think that could last?

It would never be the little kids who had a chance. Always, _always_ the older kids got picked over us. They dumped us in here, but they never expected us to has a chance. We were just cannon fodder for the older tributes to play with.

Claudia didn't even count as a little kid.

She didn't even count as human anymore.

I'd seen her at the feast, sneaking in for the best pickings while the other tributes were fighting.

Half her face was covered in a swelling, pussy burn and she had a grin practically carved into her face.

Shame howly-boy didn't get to her in time.

At least all this was a distraction from…

Shit! I promised myself not to think of him, to keep my focus on going home and yet still he crept back into my mind like the light sneaking down from the end of the tunnel.

I wondered if Sage was like Ike was to me. Both of them were 15, caring for 13 year olds in the dank forest. Both were like older brothers to me and Gwyn, trying to protect us.

Maybe I should have thought about Sage and Gwyn earlier… but it was too late to care for someone else now. Too late for more sleepless nights crying over a broken dream.

Maybe in a few days I could be… home…

**That's it for now or I might be tempted to kill someone else. I've decided I'll kill one character each chapter from now on and then the post-game video and interview and **_**maybe**_** the victor's Victory Tour. Sorry allreader and thanks for reviewing heaps of chapters recently but that's it for Gwyn.**


	15. Alone

**Four left after this chapter, but who will it be? Sorry it's taking ages… It'll be holidays soon though so I can go nuts (When I'm not sleeping, eating… sleeping or sleeping)**

**This week's question: How did Artemis Rey Yale die?**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Claudia Van Paul: (District 2)**

Weapon from sky.

Shiny.

Flail.

Like flail.

Flail kill Sage.

Sage girl die.

Happy.

Sage die.

Now.

Sage die now.

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

It seems there'd been seem remodelling going on by the Gamemakers on the arena. The spider mutts have vanished, instead there was a sheer rock wall made by the mountains.

Apparently they weren't willing to take the risk of us escape past the spiders, instead choosing to totally block us in, just in case we weren't freaking claustrophobic enough already with the 7 foot spiders.

It wasn't until I recognised the sound of running water that I cracked a smile for the first time in what felt like months… maybe even years.

Chasing the noise like the end of a rainbow, I came to a huge waterfall, maybe 40 metres high, cascading into a pond that was maybe 4 metres in diameter before feeding into the little river around the arena.

I tossed off all my weapons and equipment and sprinted straight under the waterfall.

It was like being smacked in the face by a sledgehammer. Maybe a nice, sentimental sledgehammer covered in candy and rainbows with a hint of nostalgia.

I hadn't been swimming in what felt like years, but in reality was only days.

As I shook my hair away from my face, I realised how all the giggly little girls in the Capitol must be loving watching me and I realised… I didn't care.

Somehow, the reminder of home, of what was so close to being mine had washed away all of my troubles.

Remembering what I was fighting to return to made me realise what was important now.

Gwyn and Pippa were gone, I couldn't change that. If I wanted to finish what I had to, I had to forget about everything else- and I didn't mean that in an 'I'm an 'oh so arrogant turd' way.'

I needed to focus on getting home, on being safe so I could mourn them like I should and try and piece my life back together, even if I had to do it one shard at a time.

Because right now, that was how I felt. Shattered.

And that was _before_ I heard the cannon.

**Fawn Lark: (District 11)**

Wolf was still asleep when I woke up in the morning. He was curled up in a tight ball between the roots like… well… a wolf.

Despite the fact he was a six foot tall, 18 year old Career, it was still sort o endearing to see him curled up in the roots, his sleeping face like a little child's, free from worry, despite where he was.

I wish I could be the same.

A few days ago, maybe I could have. Being alone with Wolf, in the roots of the tree, maybe I could have been so relaxed in sleep, but the slightest look at my ankle dispelled all doubt.

It was still weeping puss, days after Wolf had saved me from the trap. It was probably infected, but there was nothing we could do. It seemed the Capitol had chosen Wolf, the footless girlfriend was clearly now just a good martyr.

I decided to leave him be for a while so I could collect some berries, maybe even a bit of small game.

Wolf had found a thin stump of wood that allowed me to limp, by keeping both legs roughly the same length if it was strapped to my ankle and knee with rope, but it was difficult and painful to walk even one hundred metres.

I found barely any berries near our camp, Wolf and I would have to move soon, it was too obvious where we were, surrounded by a ring of empty berry bushes.

Thinking about Wolf kept my mind off the pain as I ventured slowly further away from our camp.

I knew it would never work, one of us had to die for the other to live, but I could still dream.

Dream of us being free, being happy back at home, or even in a world without the Capitol.

But a happy ending to the Hunger Games?

It was impossible.

**Alexandretta "Lexi" Mainoff: (District 13)**

I was thinking about Ike again, up high in a tree.

Sometimes it felt like that was all I had done in my entire life, dream about the past and think about Ike.

I'd set up some snares in the bushes, hoping to pick up some of the wild game that got caught in the snarled shrubs all around the arena, but other than that I was too exhausted to move.

The sleepless nights, staying up past midnight and then crying myself to sleep until dawn, were taking their toll. I could barely stay in the tree let alone hunt… eat… do anything really.

That didn't stop me from dead-set refusing to sleep. I couldn't stand the unconscious nightmares of Ike screaming and me dying in various, brutal ways as it was; let alone forcing myself to have more of them.

At least I was until I heard the ear-splitting cannon. To be heard all over the arena they had to be loud, but this one must have been right next to me.

I jumped out of the tree, intending to run for the hills, until I realised. I knew where everyone was, roughly. Claudia was chasing Sage, I'd seen her when I was picking berries up in the trees; she was laughing psychopathically, holding that hooked knife like it was the last object in the world while whispering something along the lines of "Die Sage" every few steps. Creepy.

Anyway, she was going in the wrong direction to be that near, even if she had killed Sage.

As for Fawn and Wolf… let's just say they won't be killing each other ANY time soon.

That meant… I had to be the killer.

It must have been one of my traps, there was no other option; one of my snares must have caught… the wrong type of prey. Or maybe the right type of prey, it all depended on how you looked at it.

I slid down the tree, using the roots like a slide to slow my fall.

It was only a few metres before I found her.

Fawn was hanging by the ankle that was still connected to a foot; the other was covered in puss and hideously burnt. Her eyes were glazed over, but still wide open in an almost comical state of shock.

The trap was made to snap the necks of small animals, but on a fully grown human, it had snapped the one of the bones in her leg, causing her to die slowly as the bone marrow poisoned her blood and she slowly bled to death.

I slumped to the ground, unwilling to move.

Kill number 4, if you counted Ike.

I wasn't scared of dying anymore. Anything, to take me away from a world where I had to let someone bleed to death for my own survival.

If that was the cost, I wasn't going to pay.

Send me to hell, I didn't give a shit.

"I'm coming… Ike," I whispered. 

**OH GOD. I just read what Lexi says about Fawn and Wolf a second time. I TOTALLY DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING CRUDE, JUST THAT THEY WERE MAKING OUT OR SOMETHING.**

**Anyway, sorry I haven't written in ages, I've been busy. Now I should be able to finish the story without waiting weeks and weeks. (Touchwood)**

**Sorry annasauce for killing off Fawn, I know her and Wolf were sweet but someone needed to die.**

**I'm going to try keeping these chapters fairly short, because recently I've read some really long-winded chapters where you totally lose the plot, so hopefully this isn't too long. (Or too short)**

**Who's it going to be next week? Find out… whenever I get around to updating.**


	16. Not Just Chance

**Yikes, I REALLY need to update more often… I started this chapter WEEKS ago… whoops. Even though Claudia appears a lot in the next few chapters, I might not give her any more POVs. As interesting as it is to write like a sociopathic psychopath, (yes, they're different things) she's such an unreliable narrator that it makes the scenes almost incomprehensible.**

**WARNING: ULTRA-ULTRA GORY CHAPTER. I'M WARNING YOU NOW.**

**This week's question: Name the 8****th**** LAST person to die.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

**Alive Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Wolfgane Lee: (District 1)**

The cannon jolted me out of my sleep. I leapt into a fighting stance; sword at the ready, even though the ighting couldn't have been near me, the cannon was too quiet.

I turned around to see if Fawn had any ideas when I realised- she wasn't there.

Even if some shrink asked me how I felt at that moment, I couldn't really explain it. Maybe one part shock, two parts worry, two parts fear and twenty parts of OH SHIT.

I broke into a dead sprint, arms pumping as I pelted through the woods.

Branches shattered beneath my weight as I crashed through trees like they were made of paper. Nothing could stop me, not even Claudia with her gut-knife. No one would stand in my way.

I saw what my eyes were telling me well before I understood it.

Fawn's glazed over eyes as her body swung gently in the breeze. The pool of blood from the gruesome wound down her leg. Her hair as it glistened in the sun, still as beautiful as when I first saw it. But it wasn't her. It was just a lifeless body now, drained of everything it once was, but none of what it meant to me.

Why did she run off? Why couldn't I have been there to save her? She'd already suffered so much, but to suffer again?

No…

I could see the killer, that little 13 year old girl kneeling on the ground, waiting for me to kill her.

A part of me wanted to; more than anything in the world, but my rage had vanished. I could barely bring myself not to fall on my sword as I slumped to my knees in front of Fawn's body.

Finally the branch snapped from Fawn's weight as I caught her. I held her in my arms even though she could no longer feel it. Gently, I closed her eyes as I just sat there, empty. I wanted to scream, to do something. I would do _anything _to bring her back, and yet I could do nothing.

Rage bubbled up inside me as all my other emotions left me… just like Fawn…

I could still sense the little District 13 girl behind me. She was in some kind of trance and as much as I wanted to walk away, to mourn, my anger was screaming for blood, for some brutal kind of 'Justice.'

They called the Peacekeeper buildings 'Justice' too. Like it meant anything any more.

I managed to drag one foot away from the District 13 girl, but I couldn't hold myself back.

One swing was all it took. I barely even felt it, but it was like it snapped the last shred of control I had over my anger.

I gripped my sword with both hands as I heard the slightest sound in the trees. It was barely a noise at all, but several weeks of verbal silence and unrestrained paranoia had attuned my ears to the faintest twitches of animals.

But this was no animal.

I thought briefly of Sage, but he was from District 4, and alone. They always ended up near water when they were alone; plus he was too heavy for that noise.

I raised my sword just in time to block Claudia's drop on my head from the nearby trees.

Somehow, she managed to land and balance on the edge of the sword, even though it was razor-sharp last time I checked.

She flipped backwards onto the ground, still grinning either angelically or demonically depending on the angle. Her knife picked up the sunlight so it glistened like a rainbow and I couldn't help but wonder who she'd bribed to get a manufactured diamond knife into the cornucopia. Sure it wasn't as expensive as real diamond, but it was much, _much _stronger. Even the training centre in District 1 only had one or two weapons made of it and I'd never fought with them, even though I was the best in the class by miles.

I shook my head as I realised I was getting distracted before I swung forward in a deadly arc, planting my weight to swing through cleanly.

It seemed Claudia had this all plotted out, as if she'd known how everything would happen as she skipped sideways… and _again_.

Not just this fight but _everything_. Even as nuts as she was… she knew what would happen. Even how I would fight.

I tried to clear my thoughts, meditating like I'd been taught in training, but every memory I could think of seemed stained with blood… or fire.

Without concentration, I was hopelessly outmatched by even an opponent half my size. I was still thinking about Fawn, about how maybe I would see her again if I died. It wasn't like I had any other way.

At the same time, I knew she wouldn't want me to just give up… she'd hate me for losing for her.

Then my choice was taken away from me as Claudia's dagger sank into my skin and ripped through the top of my sword arm. Stories and wife's tales might glorify the ability of the hero or heroine to pick up their sword and keep fighting to victory.

They're wrong.

The gash must have torn through my arm muscles. I couldn't so much as lift my arm. Not because of the pain, because it hurt like shit, but because the muscles were too torn to move it. I knew from training that totally tearing the muscles apart was pretty much impossible to heal without the Capitol's super machines.

Before I could transfer the sword to my off hand, I felt Claudia's dagger sink into my stomach before ripping out in a spray of blood.

My body crumpled against a tree. I felt like I was watching myself from the TVs back at home. There was no pain, just a shocking numbness as I waited for Claudia to kill me.

She took a step forward, preparing for some type of brutal murder when her head suddenly cocked sideways, staring towards the trees north of the clearing.

I wondered if this was just another way of torturing me or if she really heard something because my senses were totally screwed.

Just as I thought she was messing with my head, Sage Zawyer walks into the clearing.

I had to admit, there was no way this would miss the final cut as Claudia and Sage squared off.

The Gamemakers must have been planning this all along; three Careers, one from each district, all in an arena-shaped clearing, with an impressive supply of weapons. I was supposed to have my axe and the sword, Claudia had her gut-knife and a flail and Sage was apparently pretty lucky with the sponsors.

As Claudia shook her knife to clear some of the blood, Sage held a gold-tipped spear in his right-hand and a dagger with a necklace wrapped around it in his left. While Claudia was covered in blood, dirt and gore, Sage had wet hair and was perfectly clean with a harness around his chest holding a trident, what looked like a tent-pole and a vicious mechanical dagger.

The Capitol must be going wild. The shirtless fifteen year-old vs. the psychotic twelve year old with a huge kill streak.

How poetic.

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

As I dashed into the clearing, I couldn't shake the feeling that this was all planned. About five minutes ago, a harness dropped next to the waterfall on a parachute.

Two little loops for the tent pole and the trident, leaving me still holding the spear and the knife with Pippa's necklace wound around the hilt, even after shoving Gwyn's knife through my belt.

I wondered why I Suddenly got a sponsor's gift when I was at my most boring when a cannon fired in the distance.

So they were trying to bait me into joining some long and hideous fight for victory. It wasn't going to work; I wasn't going to go running into some stupid fight for nothing. Another cannon and I was struggling against my conscience. It had to be Claudia; no one else could kill two final 5 tributes in a matter of minutes.

Still, I wavered as I thought that maybe someone else would kill her, maybe they'd get lucky and I wouldn't have to face her… but no, I knew it wouldn't work and I'd just be letting another person die.

Finally, I heard the sounds of swords clashing. It was tantalisingly close, only a few metres away, but I knew the Gamemakers were messing with my head and most likely, they were hundreds of metres into the dense forest.

Still, my conscience moved my feet before my mind agreed as I sprinted headlong into the forest, following the sound of fighting.

After what felt like hours, I finally broke through into the clearing.

Wolf was in a heap against a tree, his eyes vacant, a huge gash through his arm and blood pouring from an open wound in his stomach.

I would have thought he was dead if he hadn't started coughing blood.

As soon as I managed to draw my eyes away from Wolf, my eyes found Claudia, covered in blood with the most psychotic look I had ever seen in my life and holding a flail in one hand and her disembowelling-knife in the other. Her eyes were lit with a terrifying glee while her grin was lopsided and creepy.

She swung the flail in circles while I gripped the spear and the knife tighter in my hands, even as they dripped with sweat.

There was no warning as Claudia leapt forward, drawing back for a wild slash with the dagger.

I charged forward, knocking Claudia out of the air before the knife connected, only for her to jump around behind me while my weight carried me forward.

I felt the flail's chain tighten around my wrist while I grabbed her other wrist. I pulled my arms forward as hard as I could, causing my elbows to lock as I pulled both arms in front of me, slamming Claudia into my back before I flipped her over my head, smashing her into the ground. It was a technique I'd learnt at the Training Centre, but even as I thought how effective it was, I saw Claudia's evil grin.

I could only watch as she snapped the flail upwards before cracking it down again. With my wrist still trapped in the chain.

There was something obviously horribly wrong with my wrist before the pain hit. It was bent at an unnatural angle, with the bones pushing against the skin and there was definitely more than two parts to my wrist joint. The muscles were pulled tight against the skin and it was already turning red and swelling.

I was still staring at my wrist when I realised Claudia was lunging again.

All I could do was turn my head aside as I broke free of the dream-state of numbness I had been in and doubled over in pain.

**CLIFFHANGER!**

**Anyway, sorry this has been so long in the making, I hope you enjoyed the action I worked into there and I hope everyone's still reading even though I haven't updated in ages… sorry to RiversOfVenice for killing Lexi.**

**Oh and by the way, the reason it seemed like Lexi was giving up is because Wolf was already there but I didn't want to ruin my one death per chapter rule.**

**I hope you all read to the end (Which will be soon, I promise)**


	17. The Cake is A Lie

**It's getting exciting now, just three tributes left. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to abandon my 'One death a chapter rule' or I'd have to kill Claudia and leave the rest of the chapter as Wolf and Sage slowly bleeding to death just to carry over to another chapter. And that would be mind-numbingly boring.**

"**Sage's thoughts: huh I'm dying…**

**Wolf's thoughts: I'll get to be with Fawn**

**Sage's thoughts: Gwyn's gonna be peeved I didn't win"**

**And etc, etc, etc. As I said, boring.**

**I've decided I will do final interviews and maybe a hint of Victory Tour so don't tune out after this chapter and please review, especially seeing as you'll find out the victor this chapter.**

**Oh and this is another ULTRA GORY WARNING. I would make the chapter M but I don't think the whole story is that bad so I'm just warning you now. The rest shouldn't be anywhere near as bad since it's in the Capitol and the like.**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Alive (Barely) Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

**Sage Zawyer: (District Four)**

The gutting knife narrowly missed braining me where I sat as it sliced through the skin over my left eyebrow before planting itself in my left shoulder.

Claudia ripped it out before going to plant it in my back.

I was thrown forward by the force, but I felt the wooden pole from Pippa's sort-of-spear shatter with the knife imbedded in a chunk of the wood. With my right wrist unusable, I ripped the knife out and threw it away with my left hand.

Claudia snarled as she yanked at the flail sending a splitting pain up my right arm, causing me to curl in a ball. I wasn't sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate that the flail was so tightly wrapped around my wrist that she couldn't rip it off me.

Despite the feeling that my arm was being torn apart from the inside, both Claudia and my heads whipped around to see what was making a sudden cracking noise.

Wolf had managed to catch Claudia's dagger and the cracking was the sound of him dragging himself to a standing position against the tree.

He stumbled forward a step as Claudia let go to finish Wolf, he looked like he could barely hold the knife now, let alone if someone ripped it out of his hands and shoved it between his ribs.

As I lay against the tree, waiting for Claudia to come back and kill me, I recognised the opportunity.

My left hand couldn't grip onto a feather, let alone Pippa's spear, but my right arm could be moved, even if my wrist couldn't. And there was still a huge, spiky steel ball on a chain wrapped around it.

Claudia lunged for the knife as I pulled myself up and smashed my arm down on the back of her neck, flail hooked on it.

She had turned slightly when she heard me move and I could see the expression on her face as her neck snapped. Her eyes widened in shock as she crumpled forwards, almost in slow motion. I saw the confusion in her eyes, even as mine filled with blood from the cut across my temple.

I collapsed only seconds after her; it didn't matter to me whether Wolf killed me, I had so little energy that the Gamemakers could drop an entire fishing armada on my head and I wouldn't be able to move an inch.

All I could do was curl up in a ball, writhing in agony and hope Wolf killed me soon.

**Wolfgane Lee: (District One)**

I knew trying keep fighting in my state was stupid, but I couldn't bear the idea of just dying against a tree, only a cannon warning anyone of my passing.

As I stumbled forward, I realised how stupid my concept of pride was. I was going to die, simply because I was too proud to let myself live in peace.

When the flail cracked against Claudia's neck, I was so relieved that I felt like laughing. At least I did until I saw Sage standing over the body, wrist unnaturally bent with a blood-coated flail around his wrist.

I remembered thinking about how clean and healthy he'd looked before the battle, but all that was gone now.

There was blood running from his left temple down his face, blocking out most of his eye. His left arm hung limply at his side where the shoulder was covered in blood from a pretty deep knife wound while his right arm was just a total mess. I'd seen kids dislocate wrists, elbows and shoulders while we were training, but never had I seen anything that looked even half as bad as his wrist.

It was 100% certifiably screwed. The bone was bulging against the skin, it was swollen to about three times the normal size and the skin was a dark purple.

As he collapsed on the ground, rolling around in pain as he held his right arm close to his chest, I tried to take the step forward to kill him only to find I couldn't move.

I felt the blood trickle down my chin before I realised I was coughing it up. I vaguely recalled something of the sort being mentioned in training. If you puncture a major organ you can start coughing blood. Shit.

I fell back against the tree I'd been lying against before. I managed to raise my hand to see it was covered totally in blood.

As I let my hand fall back into the dirt I wanted to write something about Fawn for the other Districts to see, but all I could think was 'kill me' as the pain came flooding back. It seemed all that was keeping it at bay had been my single-minded rage to kill Claudia and now my focus was broken, everything came flooding back.

I had an idea, but I had to… hold on first…

**A/N: As tempting as it is to finish this chapter there, I did promise not to have a whole chapter of Wolf and Sage bleeding to death.**

**Sage Zawyer: (District Four)**

When I woke up, I realised I'd blacked out. I didn't know for how long, but it can't have been long, because it wasn't a cannon that woke me up.

My entire upper body ached as I tried to pull myself up. I must have torn something in my chest when I flipped Claudia over my back after yanking her forward, my right arm was in agony from the wrist all up my arm. Untangling the flail and dropping it helped, but it was still unbelievably painful. My left shoulder was a wreck and I could only move the arm a few centimetres without being in pain and I couldn't see out my left eye until I blinked all the blood away. The cut seemed to be scabbing over slightly but I still kept my eye shut.

I felt woozy as soon as I stood up and had to bite my lip to stop myself from drifting into unconsciousness from the blood loss.

That would have to be the most boring conclusion to the Games ever, two Careers unconscious until one of them dies. Scintillating stuff.

I slowly realised what woke me up, it had become background noise while I'd been checking my injuries.

Wolf was propped up against a tree, making a slow barking sound, but I was too stunned to register the irony.

He was choking, trying to cough something up and when I realised what it was, I wanted to turn away. He was coughing blood, but it was clotting in his throat. I was tempted to turn and wait for him to die when I realised he was tapping the ground beside him.

The knife was still in his hand as he tapped a scrawl in the dirt.

KILL ME.

I had no idea if it was a trap, he still held the knife but at the same time he was clearly in pain. I also had no way of killing him.

It was funny, I realised, despite all of the other alliances and groups throughout the Hunger Games, in a way it was the Careers that had lasted this one.

Even if we tried to kill each other, in the end Wolf and I sort of unintentionally worked together to kill Claudia. Now I was deciding whether or not to kill him.

I realised I still had Pippa's gold spear on my back, and I could still move my feet.

I couldn't bend forward because of my chest muscles, but I managed to flick it over my head with my toes.

Wolf's barking became more erratic as I managed to grab the spear just above the head with my toes. This would probably have to be one of the oddest kills of the Games.

As I limped towards Wolf, I couldn't help but wonder. What if it was a trap? Was it still the right thing to do?

I finally decided that I knew there was a huge chance I'd die in these Games and the least I could do was try and do the right thing, even if it meant dying.

I pulled my foot up before stamping it down towards Wolf's heart.

I could only watch as Wolf lifted the knife. He didn't have the strength to stab or slash, but all he needed to do was hold it as my own momentum impaled my foot on his knife.

As his eyes flashed in victory I realised he hadn't expected me to still be able to shove the spearhead into his chest.

**Okay, so I lied. I want to know who you guys think should win and why. It won't necessarily change my mind but I want to try and make this a better conclusion. For all you know I might intentionally vote for the one you guys decide against.**

**The options:**

**Sage:**

**Started out as Career**

**Sort of fell in love with Pippa**

**Lost sister because of Dia and got revenge**

**Fawn kills Pippa after Dia speared her**

**Joined forces with Gwyn**

**Tried to save Gwyn from Claudia but was too late**

**Kills Claudia by smashing her spine with a flail**

**Injuries:**

**Head wound**

**Shoulder impaled by knife (knife now gone)**

**Knife through foot and shin**

**Messed up right arm**

**Totally heartbroken: First his sister, then Pippa, then Gwyn**

**Kills:**

**Dia Feng (District 4)**

**Wolf:**

**Volunteered for some random little kid in district**

**Started out as Career**

**Slaps then eventually kills Aphrodite**

**Careers split**

**Makes a deal with Fawn before feast**

**Hits HIMSELF with an axe**

**Loses axe**

**Meets second love Fawn (First love- the axe)**

**Has to burn Fawn's foot off**

**Fawn dies, he rages and kills Lexi**

**Fights with Claudia- fails drastically**

**Injuries:**

**Wound in side from own axe**

**Massive chest wound from Claudia**

**Torn shoulder muscles and huge cut from Claudia**

**Stabbed in chest by Sage (Tells him to, but was trying to lie)**

**Saying his heart wouldn't match his personality, but yeah that too**

**Kills:**

**Aphrodite Fortescue (District 1)**

**Kara Sanders (District 5)**

**Ash Manor (District 8)**

**Alexandretta Mainoff (District 13)**

**I already know who I was planning on picking to win, but I'd like to see some other opinions, so vote away. I'll wait a week and PM everyone who submitted tributes and then I'll start writing the end.**


	18. Not Quite Dead Yet

**Currently the votes are pretty interesting, not going to elaborate though. I decided I'd do some sort of extra scene to fill in the time before I'm closing voting. **

**Options are: **

**Interviews, Training, Chariots, etc. (For Wolf and Sage or everyone)**

**Something to do with mentors**

**Anything else you can think of**

**WARNING: Adult themes (more than usual) such as what happens to tributes… after the Games. (Hint**

**In the mean time:**

Reich Davis was the Head Gamemaker for the 375th Hunger Games. The idea to cut the tongues out had come from one of his subordinates, but it had been resoundingly successful. The alliances shattered within days and the little packs slowly killed each other. Even the Careers didn't last.

Unfortunately, the little prick made it known that he hadn't agreed with the plan originally and Reich needed to pull off something spectacular.

When Wolf and Sage were killing each other, the idea suddenly appeared. Keep both of them alive for a little while and let the Capitol and the Districts vote. It was almost too perfect, forcing the Districts to kill one of their own while improving popularity in the Capitol.

He was led down a series of sterile corridors before reaching a viewing room. On one side lay Wolf, his pale brown hair cleaned of blood. He had a tracheal tube down his throat to pump the blood out of his airways until the decision was made, at which point they'd have to reinflate his left lung and operate to sew it back together. His intestines were stitched back in, but other than that they were keeping them as close to death as they could until they were forced to fix one of them up for the show. Wolf was heavily sedated after he'd thrashed around, almost ripping the tubes out. There were heavy circles under his eyes and he was deathly pale with his ribs poking out through his skin and Reich was worried that he would look terrible for the interviews if he won.

Sage was on the other side, not looking quite as sorry as Wolf. His hair was drenched with sweat; apparently the sedatives weren't quite enough for whatever he was dreaming. His left shoulder was bandaged unbelievably tight after the knife damage had been patched over. His heel was bandaged as well, with the white tinted with red, even after they'd been forced to repair the damage. Reich was annoyed by the costs but they'd had to give him several blood transfusions until the head doctor had forced him to pay for the tissue repair or keep paying for blood. The wound on his head was neatly bandaged, and for once Reich had only payed for stitches, but some colour was returning to his face which was worrying. Sage's wrist had been set back in place and the bone rejoined because once again the head doctor had forced him to fix it or have a victor with a lame hand if he won. With the tan from his life in District 4, combined with sunburn from the waterfall in the arena, the greyish pallor of his face, the bags under his eyes, the bandages, the scar from the little girl's symbol and the red swelling gave the impression of a Frankenstein's monster.

The only sound was the steady beat of the two tributes' heartbeats as the Gamemaker watched the two, slowly smiling as he thought about how he had these two pathetic, little lives in the palm of his hands. To kill Wolf, all he needed to do was to pull the plug on his life support. Sage might be trickier, he might survive the loss of life support, but all he needed was an extra dose of drugs and he's be out like a light- permanently.

In some ways, Reich hoped that Sage won. He could see the headlines, "The Next Finnick Odair." Sure the kid wasn't quite as good looking as the wannabe rebel 300 years ago but tell people it's wine and you could make a fortune off water and the kid was already somewhere around apple juice. He had a great sob story; the sister, then the girlfriend of about ten hours, then the little girl he was protecting. His personality might be a bit of a standpoint though.

Wolf on the other hand was already 18, he was tall, he was fit and he had a killer story to tell for the final interview. Still, romantically unstable victors had ended up as disasters in the past; rebellious, suicidal, insane and unhelpful, they were a huge waste of resources.

There were two noticeboards pinned next to each other on the wall, each with a full profile of the two tributes for the voting.

**Name: Sage Zawyer**

**Age: 15**

**District: 4**

**Height: 5'8**

**Weight: 119**

**Appearance**: Long black hair, tanned, dark eyes and broad frame.

**Personality:** Sage is very closed off to the world, his district and people in general. Possibly in relation to sister's death. Though he seems quiet most of the time, he can turn into a cold-hearted warrior in the blink of an eye. He doesn't like feeling enclosed in small spaces or being hammered with questions. Heavily sarcastic and volatile.

**Volunteered or Reaped:** Reaped

**Weapon of Choice:** Spear or Trident. (Notable weapon: tent pole and knife spear made by Pippa York)

**Phobia:** Small spaces.

**Talents: **Fishing, fighting with two weapons, high pain threshold, finding water.

**Allies: **Wolfgane Lee, Aphrodite Fortescue, Ronan Valkyrie, Claudia Van Paul, Pippa York, Dia Feng and Gwyn Young.

**Kills:** Dia Feng (District Four) and Claudia Van Paul (District 2)

**Notable Occurrences:** Sister killed in 373rd Hunger Games. Originally allied with Careers (Wolfgane Lee, Aphrodite Fortescue, Ronan Valkyrie, Claudia Van Paul, Pippa York and Dia Feng). Killed Dia Feng during alliance disintegration. Pippa York, ally and love interest, killed by Fawn Lark (blow dart). Assisted Gwyn Young in killing Crato Giaga. Formed an alliance with Gwyn Young. Destroyed poison store of Claudia Van Paul and Ronan Valkyrie with assistance from ally. Gwyn Young killed in front of him by Claudia Van Paul in revenge attack. Continued on own for following days. Joined conflict between Claudia Van Paul and Wolfgane Lee. Killed Claudia Van Paul. Stabbed Wolfgane Lee with spearhead.

**Injuries:** Knife wound to left shoulder, cut across temple, knife wound to heel, broken and dislocated right wrist.

**Name: Wolfgane lee**

**Age: 18**

**District: 1**  
><strong><br>Height: 6'**

**Weight: 225  
><strong>  
><strong>Appearance:<strong> Solidly built, light brown hair, brown eyes, favours a ponytail.

**Personality:** Wolf is pretty much a loner. He can get along with others when it's in his best interests, but he isn't a big people person. He doesn't let others into his shell and actively repels others from trying to communicate with him except for Fawn Lark (deceased).

**Volunteered or Chosen:** Volunteered after a 12 year old was reaped to avoid embarrassing his District.

**Weapon of Choice:** Axes and Swords (Notable weapon: broad axe taken from Ivory Ness).

**Phobia:** Heights.

**Talents:** Strong, fast and smart. Trained in every weapon but prefers axes and swords. Limited weaknesses as a result of training.

**Kills:** Aphrodite Fortescue (District 1), Kara Sanders (District 5), Ash Manor (District 8) and Alexandretta Mainoff (District 13)

**Allies: **Aphrodite Fortescue, Ronan Valkyrie, Claudia Van Paul, Pippa York, Sage Zawyer, Dia Feng and Fawn Lark.

**Notable Occurrences:** Originally allied with Careers (Aphrodite Fortescue, Ronan Valkyrie, Claudia Van Paul, Pippa York, Sage Zawyer and Dia Feng). Killed Aphrodite Fortescue during alliance disintegration. Continued to travel with Ronan Valkyrie and Claudia Van Paul. Left the alliance alone. Joined alliance with Fawn Lark. Killed Ash Manor during Feast. Forced to retreat without axe as a result of injuries sustained from own axe but associated with Morty Fellar. Kissed by Fawn Lark. Amputated foot of Fawn Lark. Fawn Lark dies as a result of trap by Alexandretta Mainoff. Kills Alexandretta Mainoff. Fights Claudia Van Paul. Near-fatally wounded. Stabbed in chest by Sage Zawyer while stabbing in the foot.

**Injuries:** Torn shoulder muscles and cut, huge stomach knife wound, ribs stitched, chest wound from spearhead.

Looking over the profiles was mildly amusing, but also slightly infuriating for the Head Gamemaker. Most of the damage was done by themselves, with only the mutts and the waterfall plan coming into play and they hadn't even gotten around to using the waterfall to flood the arena; too many deaths too quick. It was a shame that the insane girl from 2 didn't live, but she'd been cutting down _his_ Game time.

The two prep teams were busy setting up for the big reveal and Reich couldn't help but grin as he returned to his office.

It had to be the biggest Quell in at least several hundred years; not just voting for tributes (been there done that) but voting for the victor.

Reich cackled as he debated which clip to replay while the voting was on.

**It's the Head Gamemaker! And an excuse for me to make proper profiles of Wolf and Sage. I should be able to add one chapter during the week, then the announcement by next weekend. Anyone that hasn't voted or wants to change; VOTE!**


	19. Lone Wolf

**Thanks for the idea Bowserboy, it's not half bad. You now get two votes for Wolf in return for me writing the Wolf and Fawn and Sage and Pippa chapter. It's pretty close at the moment (including the PM votes) but I'm not going to ruin the surprise. Anyway, here's some Wolf and Fawn-y goodness.  
><strong>

**To MoscowAngel, even if Sage was the protagonist during the Games, afterwards he would be the bitter, angry one who'd lost everything before he had it while Wolf would be the depressed one who lost his girlfriend and killed a 13 year old in revenge. It sort of makes Wolf seem like the protagonist and Sage seem like the bitter, violent one.**

**You can pick and mix if you don't want to read it all, I've got headings for what each bit is. They're a bit more… verbally direct because I realised that Wolf should be slightly more arrogant as a trained Career and Sage is meant to hate the Games a LOT after his sister died.**

**Wolfgane Lee: (District 1)**

**REAPINGS:**

The weather was dull and gloomy in District 1; it matched the mood of the people. Normally the district would be excited about the Games, finding out who could join the huge honour role of District 1 victors and become a hero for a few months until the next year's death and destruction. It still would have been if it weren't for the reading of the card.

"To remember how valuable communication was to the war, this year, every contestant shall become an Avox by the end of the first night, or be punished with certain death."

No one wanted to fight this year. Not being able to talk? They considered it some sort of hellish punishment. I didn't really see the problem. Wasn't as if I talked much anyway.

My parents were still in the Capitol, facing charges for treason. I doubted I'd ever see them again. You heard stories about what happened there, but the only surety was that no one ever returned.

A smashing knock on my door broke my reverie as I opened the door. Several of my training partners stood at the door, obviously impatient as they waited for me to go to the Reapings.

"Come on, man," Drace whined as he leaned against the door frame, "You know what happens if you're late, we gotta go."

I groaned as I walked out the door and locked it before following the group to the main square, which wasn't far from my house as one of the ex-richest kids in the District. We were meant to lose the house in the 'trial'; they just hadn't settled a buyer yet.

Even though I was with a group of the toughest guys from the Training Centre, I really didn't have many friends. It was more a matter of it being uncool for them not to be seen with me as one of the strongest kids in the District. It had taken years of training but it had at least convinced my parents that I wasn't the total loner I really was.

Not that it mattered anymore.

Rain spattered the pavement as we signed our names and walked into the packed square. It only served to make the mood even more dismal. Not only was the square containing at least one person who was going to die, but it was packed with miserable, wet teenagers.

The mayor's speech was boring but you could at least hear it, but the rain was pounding down so hard by the time our escort started talking that the PA squealed every time she talked just to get the volume.

The volunteer bowl had been passed around, but no one's name had been in it, not one. Apparently no one wanted to get their tongue cut out, even if they were 'macho' Careers. I never put my name in and today was no big difference.

Some kid got reaped before an arrogant bitch was the only one to volunteer, but I ignored it while I tried to pull my hands inside a jacket that was already too small for me. I mean, seriously, who calls their kid Aphrodite?

When our resident nut-job's hand entered the reaping ball I realised this must be some kind of record. No District 1 males volunteered for the 375th Hunger Games. None at all.

"Cain Stevens!" the escort calls as a 12 year old slowly walks up to the stage. Still no one.

None.

Cain Stevens is two steps away from becoming the newest District 1 Male Tribute when I stand up and yell over the rain, "I volunteer."

I barely even realise I've done it until I'm listening to my voice over the speakers. Drace and his cronies are and cheering clapping as I walk towards the stage, like I've performed some great honour.

Pathetic. Even when a 12 year old gets reaped they do nothing. Then when I volunteer, the only one to restore the honour the lack of volunteers lost, they cheer me on.

Dickheads.

"What's your name, young man?" the escort asks as though she's meeting me at some fancy function, not consigning me to my death.

"Wolf."

"Your full name?" she asks, making me look like a total moron.

"Wolfgane Lee."

She waits expectantly, as if I'll suddenly turn out to be one of those pricks who yell about how they'll be the next victor. I don't

Finally, the idea that I don't want to talk reaches her pathetic little head, even through the hair that must be made of steel considering how well it's holding out against the rain, considering I can't even see past the firs two rows.

"Let's congratulate our District 1 tributes, Aphrodite Fortescue and Wolfgane Lee!"

We're cheered as we're ushered into the Justice Building, despite the fact they were too cowardly to volunteer anyway.

Drace and Co. are my only visitors, cheering me on and congratulating me on my big success.

"Great job, man, you're gonna hit the big time after this one!" they celebrate and cheer me on before the Peacekeepers force them out, and for once I'm grateful for the bastards in the white.

I want to be alone more than anything else in the world, but I know I'm not going to get that chance.

There's no one else, but my District partner must be a little social butterfly considering I have to wait for another half hour before we get ushered onto the train, all the while plastering grins on our faces for the 'loving' crowd of Capitol camera people.

**FIRST NIGHT: (REAPINGS ON TV)**

Man, Aphrodite was a bitch, bragging about how great she was and how she couldn't wait to win, even though I was sitting right beside her, as much as I wished she wasn't.

Finally, when she wouldn't shut up, I had to resort to grimacing and ignoring her while I waited for our mentors to arrive. I could see she was pissed off that I was lying over the whole couch, but I really couldn't care less, if anything pissing her off only made me happier.

When Tekem and Zora Lieron, our mentors, finally showed, she finally shut _up_. "Reapings are on now, watch, both of you," Tekem commanded as he flicked on the TV.

First there were us, only slightly obscured by the rain. They hadn't done a bad editing job considering the miserable downpour during the event that was borderline impossible to see through. In fact, I doubted it was even our Reapings at all, we probably just got edited into last year's; they had footage of us walking to the trains. It really looked pathetic for District 1, a thirteen and twelve year old and only two volunteers. In total. Despite my logical side saying 'who _would_ volunteer?' my Career side just said, 'Losers.'

District 2 weren't much better. The guys at least had a few volunteers; the burly, eighteen year old would have seemed respectable if it weren't for the females.

The girl picked was about fifteen and average looking; she didn't even make an impression on me once the volunteer stepped up.

The volunteer in a Career district was a twelve year old girl. Baby faced, bouncing curls and tiny red lips, she looked like a baby doll and yet she was the only volunteer. These Games would probably be looked back on as the Shame Games, the showing was so pathetic.

The longer we watched, the creepier the little girl got, but creepy didn't mean strong, fast or smart.

I only watched District 3 in case they had any potential allies; it wasn't exactly uncommon for the Careers to take on a District 3 pet for the brains stuff.

The boy looked pathetic, bawling his eyes out and hugging his twin while the girl was in another league. She just looked angry, but prepared and a lot less fragile. I was impressed, most years we'd be stuck between a wimp and a loser for the District 3 add-on.

District 4 was its usual self, a tall, fit girl with a hot pink streak sprinted to the stage and refused all volunteers while the male tribute looked oddly familiar, maybe I'd seen a sibling in the Games, and from Aphrodite's reaction, must have been fairly attractive. I didn't really see it.

Then again, I'm a dude.

Most of the other Districts were non-entities for me. They were mostly small; especially District 6, but there was a few decent contenders, like the District 7, 10, 11 and 12 males. The females were harder to decide, the girl from District 7 was usually alright, but this one looked like a ghost. The only female other than District 3 that I even noticed was from District 11; she was fairly fit, pretty and had flaming red hair as opposed to the usual dark skin-dark hair combos.

"So, what do you think?" Zora asked as soon as they'd wrapped up the Reapings.

"I think the District 3 girl would be a good ally- until we have to kill her," I stated, trying to impress the mentors with my willingness to kill.

Tekem growled a noise almost like a purr that started in his throat, making me wonder what kind of messed-up surgery the Capitol had given him while Zora just nodded, her jaw set as she asked, "Anyone else?"

"As if anyone else could join us," Aphrodite flicked her hair away from her face in classic 'prissy little bitch' style. Tekem started to make a noise like he was being strangled while Zora ground her teeth before continuing.

"Alright, your choice," she replied, "We'll expect you at breakfast by nine," she finished before walking out with Tekem following her.

The door didn't close quite early enough for me to miss the sound of her slapping him in the face and him punching back before the doors slammed hut over their yelling.

Aphrodite didn't even seem to notice as she flounced out of the room through another door to her bedroom.

I was left alone on the couch; even if I wanted to go to bed there would be no way I could sleep.

**SOME PHILOSOPHICAL STUFF: (THE FIRST BIT'S ABOUT WOLF'S MENTOR THEN THE PHILOSOPHICAL STUFF)**

There was a stack of Hunger Games tapes next to the TV in a cupboard, probably for tactics discussions when your mentors weren't beating each other up in the corridor. I picked one at random and shoved it into the player as the title showed up, "370th Hunger Games."

I realised as they showed the chariot rides that this was Tekem's Games as they showed a younger version of him, standing tall, almost naked in a bejewelled set of… underpants?

They skimmed through most of the interviews, focussing on Tekem's dazzling attempt at a 'charming' interview and a girl from District 5 who appeared to have retractable claws and ears like cats. (It seemed District 5 was the heart of the screwed Capitol animal surgery). I couldn't help but wonder what happened to break that charming persona, even before the Games provided my answers.

The arena was a floating island in the sky, go too far in any direction and you'd fall off and die, but staying on was almost as deadly. The entire arena was made of huge stone structures, you could hide between boulders and climb over the huge arches to hide and move around, but there was no food, forcing every tribute into the cornucopia to have a hope of survival.

The cameras flickered around the golden horn, showing various bloody deaths, but zooming in on Tekem crunching a mace into the chest of a twelve year old girl from District 8. He was about to deal the finishing blow when he had to twist up to deflect the blow of a District 7 boy with an axe. This time he finished him cleanly with a blow to the head, killing him instantly, but the District 8 girl was screaming at his feet while she coughed up blood until she died while Tekem was still fighting over her body.

After getting everything they could from the Cornucopia, the Careers started their hunt for the other tributes.

Three days in, the first tribute went mad from hunger, throwing themselves off the island before plummeting to their death as the cannon rang.

8 dead in total, it seemed things weren't fast enough for the Gamemakers who released huge bear-shaped mutts with teeth like chainsaws that could eat through any rock in the path of their search for blood. They followed the Careers for days on end, but the Careers evaded them until finally the Gamemakers intervened, causing a boulder to plummet, crushing the arm of the District 2 male.

Tekem cut it off and they continued to run until they reached the end of the arena, the District 2 had bled to death several hundred metres back, causing most of the mutts to stop to enjoy the feast before continuing the chase.

They were preparing to fight when Tekem slammed the District 4 girl in the chest with his mace, throwing the body into the midst of the mutts, but many still kept advancing before he threw the District 4 male towards the other mutts before breaking through the hole in the mutt's line to escape into some other part of the arena.

The District 1 and 2 girls had been too shocked to do anything, but sprinted after him after a few seconds before the mutts turned back from the feast.

He wasn't allowed to stay on watch alone, but that didn't stop him from killing them while they were awake.

It seemed like he had given up, his eyes were emotionless while he killed, a though he thought he'd gone too far to turn back and was trying to follow the flow.

The District 5 girl ambushed him silently, but they were both ready to take the first strike when they agreed to an alliance for as long as it suited them, no strings or 'don't kill the other one' pacts attached.

They killed another two tributes while another was killed in a fight with another small alliance over a sip of water. Another died of thirst before the feast was called.

The Cornucopia was surrounded by buckets of ice filled with bottled water and every tribute was desperate for even just a sip.

Two died here while four others died fighting over the next day, the last one on top of a huge stone 'bridge' in the centre of the arena, leaving Tekem and the District 5 girl.

Before he could react, she jumped off the arch, the cornucopia breaking her fall before she hit the ground. Either she wasn't dead or he was being tortured because he had to watch as the mutts, still hanging around, ripped her to pieces.

At the interviews, Tekem was broken. No acting, no make-up could hide the fact that the vibrant, charming boy who started the Games was shattered into a million pieces.

As the screen turned black, I realised Tekem was watching me from the corner, his nose slightly skewed and purple, but he'd washed the blood off.

"Is it really… better to win?" I asked as he remained silent.

Tekem stared for almost a minute and I wondered if he was going to answer when he finally spoke, "Zora seems to think so." Nothing else, just what he'd been told.

"Do you really believe her?"

Another pause, "No," he said finally, "Do I really believe it's better to throw two living people to mutts to grind them to pieces to save your hide, to kill two girls in their sleep, to have someone kill themself for you than die? No. I don't. I didn't even know Raisa liked me until she threw herself off that bridge. I tried to convince myself that I was going to hell anyway and I might as well keep fighting, but what happens when you don't believe in the afterlife? I had to watch while I cut Crow's arm off, I had to watch his dreams die. As a Career, the ability to fight was everything to him. When he couldn't, he would rather be dead than running.

"If I had to go into the Games again, I don't think I could convince myself to win. I'd rather die than kill again, and yet they force me to send kids to their death every year, and if I don't co operate, they die anyway without a hope of winning," Tekem sighed after this rant before he just whispered, "Go to bed, Wolf," and left the room again.

**CHARIOT RIDES:**

I had to say, I didn't mind my chariot outfit. Some of the other tributes might have a few problems, like the semi-naked District 11 and the District 4's dressed in head to toe blue Lycra with plastic blue fins sticking rigidly out of their bodies in different places, making them look like demented paper lanterns with holes in them.

The others were pretty average, ranging from weird to decent with none of them even reaching normal.

I was dressed in a pretty epic suit of armour, inlaid with gold and covering my entire body, with gauntlets, a chest plate, thigh armour and armoured boots, I looked totally indestructible through the Capitol's cameras placed around the track, grinning fiercely and waving. Aphrodite was in some 9 inch stilettos and a golden dress which pissed me off because it made her taller than me, but I still looked stronger and broader in the armour while she looked freakish so I was fine with her looking like an idiot.

By the end I was annoyed there was only one lap, I was loving the adulation of the crowd, shouting my name and throwing roses on to the path, even if they were creepy and brightly coloured in their absurd dresses and suits, they made the tributes look comparatively normal and that was saying something.

I tried going to bed, but by the time I made it to the bedroom, I was back to being too mopey to sleep so I climbed the stairs, earning me some weird looks from the servants who shared them, and came out onto the cool rooftop.

**ROOFTOP: (AFTER CHARIOT RIDE- WITH FAWN)**

I was still wearing the chariot outfit I'd had on just a few minutes ago. It was already late, but I knew I wouldn't sleep, no matter how hard I tried.

I'd been dressed in an intricate set of armour based on something people had worn thousands of years back. I almost wished I could take it into the arena with me. The breeze was cool, but I'd taken off the heavy thigh armour before I melted. I still wore the chest plate made of hardened steel. It probably wouldn't protect me against many modern weapons, but the weight was reassuring.

The city lights created a sort of bright fog over the city. Sort of like their minds, corrupted by their affluence in a glistening fog.

I heard footsteps creeping up behind me, but I didn't turn around until whoever it was sat down beside me.

It was the girl from District 11 with the flaming red hair. She wasn't wearing her chariot uniform anymore, and I couldn't say I was surprised. If I was her showing that much skin to the entire country, my hair wouldn't be the only red part of my head. They'd draped vines over the important parts and given them a crown full of fruit. If it looked ridiculous on a reasonably attractive 5'4 female, it looked obscene on the 6'4, hugely muscular male. It was so bad they ended up using one hand to cover their dignity while keeping the other at their side; obviously afraid waving would upset the vines.

Now she was just wearing cargo pants, a t-shirt and a light jacket, basically the training uniform.

"You ever been her before?" she asked as she looked out over the city, the light breeze blowing her hair around her face, obscuring it as she looked towards the buildings that made up the filthy metropolis.

"Yeah…" I replied lamely, feeling I needed to explain, "My parents were pretty high up in District 1 so they needed to visit here occasionally to report on progress in mining, crafting and stuff like that."

"Did you like it here?" she asked, turning towards me for the first time. For a second I was caught up looking into her eyes as I realised that one of them was green, the other a bright blue before I realised she was asking a question.

"Not really. When I was little, my parents were just managers of a little mine down south of the main village. We were a bit richer than the other villagers, but it wasn't a big place. I didn't have to train then, I was just a little kid and I used to hang out with heaps of other miner's children.

"We were poor, but fairly happy. We were away from the eyes of the Capitol, even if we did have to travel to the main village for the Reapings. I remember my best friend was always hanging around with me. His name was Luka and his parents worked under mine, still just doing admin.

"Then one day, they struck gold in the mine. Literally. The shaft had a huge vein of gold running through it, even spotted with gems as it was. Suddenly my parents were rich and prolific. We moved to the main village, leaving all my friends behind.

"I was a total fish out of water in every way in my new 'home.' I was rich and from the poor villages on the outskirts of the District. I hadn't been trained as a Career before then so the first time I went to the Capitol, I was twelve years old, rich, fit and totally miserable.

"We stayed in that building, see?" I pointed into the distance, "The tall one. It should have made me happy, having anything I wanted, a huge room and personal Avoxes for the duration of the stay. I could buy whatever I wanted, I was allowed to go out on my own and do whatever I wanted, but all it did was remind me how much I preferred it before we struck gold. When my parents were happy and caring not distant and depressed. When I had a best friend I could count on, not training partners who mercilessly abused me. When we lived in the small house that looked out on the mountains where I went to collect firewood in the mornings, not in a huge hotel room with whatever we wanted.

"I realised when I was 14 that I was always in the Capitol for the Reapings. Apparently my parents made a deal so that they could keep me safe while they did their business in the Capitol.

"Then suddenly, they're charged with fraud and treason and I'm alone in District 1, waiting for the house to be pulled from under my feet when I volunteer. I wonder if I should have, but I don't think I could stand it if I didn't and could have…"

"I'm sorry…" Fawn replied, "There's nothing I can say to make you feel better, I know. I'm just… sorry.

"I could tell my story, but it's not much of a story," she offered and I just nodded, trying to find a distraction from my memories, "I wasn't born in District 11, I lived in District 9 for a long time and it was nice, learning the basics of hunting and trapping, but I was still too young to work at only 7 years old when we moved to District 11. Suddenly, there's Peacekeepers prowling the streets with their guns while we live in a little shack with three other families, I don't know why we moved, but I think my parents might have been in trouble… like financial trouble.

"I was forced to work on the orchards for 16 hours a day, climbing up and down the trees picking fruit every day except Reaping Day. It was almost a relief to get reaped, even if I didn't want to die, I could finally stop working; I wouldn't have another 8 years of 16 hour shifts every day of the year."

We just sat there for a few minutes in silence, I felt awkward, like I was her friend, like I knew her and yet I knew I would have to kill her to survive.

"So you said you'd been here before?" she asked, obviously trying to change the mood from the gloomy depression that had settled like a blanket over our heads.

"Yeah."

"What's that big building, the really tall one?" she asked, pointing.

"That's the Hunger Games committee building, the offices and living spaces for the Gamemakers, stylists and prep teams as well as the video editors and all the other staff."

"And that wide flat one?"

"It's where they go to watch non-blood sports. Guys run around in short, tight pants and try and grab balls off each other to throw them between big, metal posts," I tried to explain as Fawn laughed at the idea and I found myself laughing with her before I could stop.

The laughter drifted off into the wind as we both realised that we'd never be able to see each other again soon, even if one of us won, the other one wouldn't. We were silent again as we tried to forget the last few seconds of laughter, but at the same time, neither of us left the edge of the roof.

**TRAINING: (WITH A HINT OF FAWN)**

Training was pretty boring, we'd done most of it before and it seemed it was mostly an excuse for Dia and Aphrodite to mock Claudia and have a pissing contest over who was the better fighter, knife thrower, spearwoman, etc.

Finally, Sage wandered off and I decided to ditch them as well then blame Sage if they got pissed.

I ended up at the edible plants station, it seemed like a weird place to go and I wasn't willing to admit I went because of Fawn kneeling over two neatly stacked mounds of berries.

I was concentrating on working out the berries and finally had them in a stack when a hand darted in and picked a berry out of the poisonous pile. My head flicked up to see Fawn flicking the berry into the air and swallowing it whole.

"Fine, see?" she grinned before rapidly reorganising my piles, moving a worrying number of berries to the poisonous side from my edible mound, "It's my birthday today, sixteen years worth of the shit known as life." She sounded cheerful, but I could hear the anger and resentment in her tone as she seemingly inhaled the edible pile.

"You should have mentioned it earlier," I replied, trying to make it seem as though this was a normal conversation that wasn't a few days before we fought to the death, "I would have gotten you a present."

"Aw… you mean you didn't get me anything?"

"You mean other than all my berries you ate?" I asked jokingly before plucking a few reeds from a nearby plant bed and weaving them into a crude band in place of a crown, "For you, madam," I said in the fanciest voice I could manage, on my knee, hoping she remembered my 'knight's' armour from the previous night. Apparently they protected "King's" and "Queen's;" old names for the President.

She laughed as she put it on her head and for a moment it seemed like it could have been a normal conversation.

We walked awkwardly beside each other, both heading towards the hand-to-hand combat station, both pretending we weren't following the other one.

We practiced for the rest of the day until we were almost predicting the other's moves and I couldn't help but wonder if it would cause problems in the arena.

Despite what I wanted to do I somehow managed to force myself to avoid Fawn for the rest of training, but it killed me every time I saw a flash of her hair between other tributes and every angry glance I caught across the room.

I was a Career. I wasn't going to get attached.

**INTERVIEWS:**

"So Wolf, what do you want us to do with your hair today?" My stylist asked, but I was so out of it I barely registered that she was speaking to me. I'd sat through the rest of the waxing, applying of make up and chattering with my brain switched off that it was an effort to start thinking again. The inane chatter of the prep team hadn't helped either.

"Huh? Oh, right, I want you to cut it off," I stated as she ran her fingers through my ponytail.

"Really? I've always thought it was… nice," she replied, her hand wavering as she debated whether or not to get the scissors.

"Yeah, nice if you want someone to crack your neck or strangle you with it," it had happened. A guy a few years back had his neck crunched by someone yanking his ponytail; paralysed him and he was killed within an instant.

The stylist just nodded sadly as she cut my hair and I wondered if she was like Tekem. If after so many years of prettying kids up for their funerals, even Capitol people started to hate their job.

When we were all standing under the stage, waiting to be introduced by the host of this year's Games, Fawn walked up silently and ran her fingers through my now considerably shorter hair and whispered, "I guess this is goodbye," and walked away.

I felt sadder than I probably should have as I watched her go back to her District partner, the huge guy. I barely even noticed the interview; it was like I was running in automatic while I thought about Fawn and how I was probably going to die in a few hours.

I probably looked alright on camera; I was used to faking happy while totally lost, especially after the 'treason' charges.

I barely even noticed falling asleep; I was still zoned out, or in shock.

All I knew was that the next morning, I was as good as dead.

**Wow, that was HUGE. I just had heaps of ideas and just went on and on until I ran out. That's why it took so long, I've been busy with normal work (which I should be doing now) then writing this. I hope it turned out alright, make sure you read Sage too then: THE END.**


	20. Not So Sagely

**So this is Sage's chapter with all the extras I could think of. Most of the stuff I normally put here is in Wolf's chapter, I put them up at the same time so voters didn't suddenly change their minds then change back depending on the chapter.**

**It might seem like I'm giving them Gary Stu-ish back stories, but we've seen they're not perfect and who wants to read a chapter about how dull the two finalist's lives were before the Games?**

**Sorry Mak for making your characters seem so evil… **

**Oh and please submit to my new SYOT: **Left for Dead: 54th Hunger Games**.**

**Sage Zawyer: (District 4)**

**REAPINGS:**

I hated Reaping Day. I mean, everyone hated Reaping Day except those nut-job volunteers and I'm pretty certain there wouldn't be many of those this year. I mean what smart-ass bragger wants to not be able to talk for the whole Games?

I'm going to take a wild guess and say… none.

I was watching the waves lapping against the sand along the tiny cove I'd found a few years back. It was only about two metres across and you couldn't be much bigger than me and still fit down here, there was a crevice between two rocks that blocked the path up to the rest of the cliff. It was like a giant sword had cut just a tiny sliver of rock out of a sheer cliff face and then the tide brought the sand in.

There was a list of names carved into the rocks, hundreds of names covering the wave-smoothed surface. It took me years to realise that someone had written the names of every tribute that died in the Games for 75 years on one wall and the victors on another.

I met the writer three years ago. He was an old victor, Azul Zawyer, he won 72 years before in the 300th Hunger Games, but he only came down to the cove once a year, a few decades ago he was to big to fit between the rocks, now he was too old to make the journey more than once a year. Even the Capitol's pampering, even if he refused their treatments, couldn't hide the fact that he was a 90 year old man and he was dying.

He didn't need a list of names to add to the wall, he had committed every name to memory since he won his Hunger Games. We sat down at the cove for the entire day, even when the waves lapped at our heels, broken by the rocky outcrops on the cliff.

There wasn't much talk. I didn't know where to start and it didn't seem like he was too keen to begin either, so we just watched time pass.

Finally he spoke, "I'm an old man, Sage," I didn't realise he knew my name and I turned towards him slightly in surprise, "Oh come on, surely you didn't think I wouldn't recognise my own great-grandson."

"You… knew my parents?" I asked, almost choking down tears. I'd been a toddler when my parents died in a tsunami. Most of District 4 was obliterated, but the Capitol trucks had come in and the place was rebuilt and the fault line stabilised within a matter of months and I was shifted off to my aunt and uncle's house. As though nothing had happened, as though no one had _died_. I guess that's just how Panem thought now, what with the Games and the ruthless murder of 23 children _every year_.

"Very well in fact, being my grandchildren. But I'm not here to teach you how to lose yourself in the past until you become grey, old and boring like me," he replied, but there was no humour in his voice. It was the tone of a man who had long since resigned himself to his fate, that his life sucked and that he was going to die very, very soon, "I'm too old to continue the list on these rocks, in fact, I'm surprised they haven't had enough of me yet," still, there was no humour. It was as though he had once been a good-humoured man and then when he lost it, began to parody his own humour as if to intentionally hurt himself with his own fate, "I think it's time for someone else to take over," he finished, staring at me. Or, it seemed, through me. It was like he couldn't see me at all and was staring straight into the past. Maybe it wasn't him that started the list after all.

I had no idea what to say. I'd just met my great-grandfather for the first time and he was a victor, someone I'd watched on TV for what seemed like aeons, dealing with interviews and sponsors and yet never realised how close he was to me.

"I… okay," I replied lamely as he smiles a sort of half smile.

"I hear you've been missing your training," he joked, once again with the self-deprecating but humourless tone.

It was all I could do not to slap him in the face.

Of course, he probably didn't know, even if they were his own children. It was cast off as just another tsunami death; but it wasn't.

I wanted to keep reminiscing, but I was too afraid of the Peacekeepers to dare stay away from the Reapings. The Hunger Games might kill you, but the Peacekeepers would torture you until you begged for death. Then they'd torture you some more.

I scrambled out of the tiny cove, sprinting towards the main square. I got some strange looks from the kids in front of me signing in to say they were at the Reapings, but a glare was all it took to make them turn back.

No one messed with me. I wasn't huge or scary like my brother had been, I wasn't violent or cruel but I was strange. My aunt and uncle hated me but they wouldn't say why, my parents were dead, my brother had vanished, my sister died and I was… unfriendly.

The square was already packed with kids and I wasn't among the last to come. District 4 was one of the largest Districts, stretching the length of one coast of Panem. Unlike the other Districts, District 4 had three squares and some people had to travel for hours to reach the nearest square. I was among them, taking a train for 6 hours to reach the square, but I'd left three years early. Lucky Azul took me under his wing or I might not have been around to see the Reapings. Not that either option was any great shakes.

As soon as our moronic escort leapt forward onto the stage, a jump of about 6 metres that was totally unnatural, a hush descended over the square.

It was the type of hush you got at a funeral as the family walked towards the grave. Some of the tributes got to die in a coffin, most District 4 people were lucky if they were cremated and buried in their front yard.

She blathered on about the value of the Games, totally cutting off the mayor and everything he was meant to say, before drawing the first name without even bothering to let the mayor do his speech.

Man was she a bitch.

She drew the name out with a flourish before waiting ten seconds before reading it out. I didn't know if she was trying to build 'suspense' or if she was really just that slow.

"Dia Feng," she yelled as a growled. It was a mixture of happiness and anger. She was going to die and I would be able to watch it, knowing she deserved it.

There were a few half-hearted attempts at volunteering but I knew that no one really wanted to be in these Games; cutting their tongues off then being uncertain whether they'd ever get them back. Dia refused them all, grinning vibrantly at the cameras as the escort yanked a name out of the boys bowl.

"Sage Mar," she called and I was thinking about how sorry I felt for Sage Mar when I realised that it was me. I might have gone by Sage Zawyer since the… incident, but my name was still Mar.

I walked slowly to the stage, pushing through the 16s, 17s and 18s, all the while thinking about how it could have been them, how the big bad 'Careers,' as they dared to call themselves should have been showing how tough they were.

Silently I hoped that someone would volunteer, no matter how unwillingly because, unlike Dia, I wasn't proud or stupid enough to say no.

And yet I made it to the stage with not a whisper from the audience.

Well shit.

**FIRST NIGHT: (REAPINGS ON TV)**

_I had an older brother once too. He was everything my aunt and uncle wanted: tall, violent and arrogant; the perfect Career. He used to beat me up, even when I was about 8 but I didn't care._

_Well, I did, I just didn't let it get to me._

_I never went to training: I hated the Games, I was happy to let my brother do whatever he wanted even if it was going off and getting himself killed. I didn't care about fighting or about killing and flexing my muscles in front of a TV screen for several days before dying._

_Still, my aunt and uncle were greedy; they wanted not just one victor nephew, but two. They trained their niece too, so she was undisrupted in her life; so long as she trained they were happy._

_I was the problem child. The one they couldn't manipulate and bully into fighting._

_Then came my twelfth birthday. First year I could be reaped and I still hadn't done any training. Sure I was fit; I swam, I kayaked and I fished. I even used a spear and trident for fishing and still I wasn't good enough for them._

_I realised something was wrong the instant I walked through the door. I'd come home early, we'd heard the tidal wave warnings and bailed for the afternoon. My family lived pretty far inland so we weren't being evacuated yet._

"_Sage, it's time for you to start training," my uncle said in that deadly calm voice that told me, 'don't screw with me.'_

"_No," I replied, trying to keep my calm as I gripped my spear more tightly._

"_This isn't a discussion," he replied, turning slightly redder as he tried not to lose his calm._

"_And it won't be if you let me keep doing what I want," I replied equally coolly as he turned angry. It was only as he hissed that I realised how little I knew my uncle and aunt, for years I'd got up, eaten then gone down to the port until bedtime._

"_Marco! Get down here!" my uncle called as my brother appeared at the top of the stairs. He was only 14 but he was taller and broader than me, and probably fitter from the specialised training, "Why don't you show your brother why he should learn to fight?"_

_I would never forget that look on his face, the sick grin, mirrored on my brother as he grabbed his own spear off a rack by the stairs._

_I thought he was just feinting; that he wouldn't really hit his own brother with a spear, right up until it speared straight through my guts. It wasn't a fatal shot, but it was unbelievable in my own house._

_I looked pleadingly at my brother to see nothing, to him this was just like the Games he'd been training himself for, no emotion, no mercy until he was dead or victorious. I tried my uncle but his eyes were dead._

_The next hit was more orf a slash and as I slapped the spear aside with my own, I was beginning to wonder if they were really so obsessed with money and the Games that they'd kill me._

_Another strike, I tried convincing myself it was a fish, I just needed to stab it and I'd catch it or, in this case, knock it away-_

-We were supposed to be watching the replays of the Reapings on TV but I was so uninterested that I could probably fall asleep and it wouldn't have made a difference. I was still living in the past, wondering what would have happened if that night never occurred. Maybe it would be 17 year old Marco sprawled over the luxurious couches, maybe even faking his love for Dia while I lay safely at home.

Dia kept staring at me but I ignored her, staring vaguely at the wall.

Even the Careers were running low on energy; except for District 2, no one put their name in the volunteer bowl and even then only one person volunteered when little kids were reaped. District 4 was even more pathetic again.

The girl from District 3 was pretty enough, but I didn't really care. I spent most of my time ignoring the screen so I'd have less trouble when I had to kill them.

They'd be just objects, training dummies that moved without me having to watch their families sob over their reaping.

My grandfather wasn't among the mentors for these Games, there were more than enough and they probably thought his emotional attachment would make him unstable. That and the fact that, although I didn't want to admit it, he might die during them.

Not of thirst, not of hunger, not even in pain but the easy passing of old age.

Our mentors were both young, in their twenties and quiet. I guess the Games did that to you, even with a tongue.

When the Reapings were finished they sent us off to bed, one of them muttering about getting a good night's sleep.

As if.

**CHARIOT RIDES:**

_I slapped the spear away just in time to prevent it spearing me in the neck._

_As it crunched into the wall, becoming momentarily jammed, I saw a sudden opening. I doubted I would get it again considering the amount of training Marco had done._

_As he yanked the spear out of the wall I stabbed up with the spear, aiming for his head._

_He tried to slam the spear away, but with both hands still committed to a backwards motion, he only managed to shove the spear down slightly so that the spear went straight through his guts as he smashed the spear down on my hands._

_It was too late though, the damage was done._

_As his blood washed over my hands, I was sure I felt worse than any 12 year old in the Games ever could._

_Not only had I killed at 12 years of age, but I'd killed my own brother._

My prep team chattered merrily, fussing after every last inch of my body with creams and glitters while they tried to get me involved in conversations about the newest movie in the Capitol, which I hadn't seen, the newest type of confectionary, which I hadn't heard of, and their favourite electronic gadget, which I didn't even _want _to hear about.

They seemed shocked by my complete lack of knowledge on the subject of anything Capitol, despite the act they'd been doing this job for years; making kids look pretty before they were mercilessly ripped apart by their competitors in the most brutal blood sport in human history.

When I was finally deemed acceptable, my stylist walked in holding a blue… thing covered in plastic flaps and I thought it was some kind of flashy garment bag when the stylist shrieked, "Isn't it fabulous?"

He rushed over and started shoving my feet into the little Lycra foot covers and yanking the jumpsuit up over my head in one clean action before I could pull away.

He yanked me across the room in front of a full-length mirror in the corner and screamed, "TA-DA!" right in my ear.

I looked like a total moron.

There were random plastic flaps swaying in the breeze around my body while everything except my face was covered by a sky blue Lycra jumpsuit. I couldn't help but wonder if the stylist was somehow influenced by some type of creepy drug they were trying out in the Capitol.

He clicked his tongue; clearly something wasn't quite right yet.

After a few seconds circling me and looking all over, and I mean _all_ over, he finally grabbed some scissors and slashed open the neck.

I swear if any tribute were that fast with scissors they'd be lethal.

Great. Now I had gills too.

It was probably lucky though, because otherwise I might have died of asphyxiation and heatstroke on the chariot before the Games even started.

When I was bundled into the elevator, having to be pushed in by my mentors after I tried to resist, I was terrified.

The only thing that made me happier was that Dia was in the same get-up and she still had her pink streak in her hair.

She looked even worse than I did.

As we stood around in a waiting area that smelled vaguely of horse shit, I was back to thinking about my brother. If I hadn't driven that spear between his ribs, would he be here instead of me? Would the audience be cheering for Marco Mar in the stupid fish suit instead of Sage Zawyer?

Not that there were many cheers.

Even the Capitol people thought we looked stupid. And that was saying something _really_ bad.

Dia and I got a few wolf whistles, but other than that we were skipped over as District 5 trundled out with the girl in a flattering, sparkly dress and the boy with no shirt and tiny mini shorts that I'm pretty sure had _nothing_ to do with their District.

Well, at least no one remembered the disastrous costumes. (Unless the District 5 boys constant pulling down of his pants counted as a minor disaster. Which it pretty much did seeing as how suggestive those pants were when scrunched.)

**TRIBUTE LOUNGE: (AFTER CHARIOT RIDE- WITH PIPPA)**

_The spear wouldn't shift out of Marco's body as I finally dropped the spear and backed away from his body. His eyes were gassy and his hands were slumped out around him as his chest remained totally still._

_My uncle and aunt were shocked and they stared at me in horror, as if they hadn't tried to get Marco to kill me._

_One last look at Marco's body was too much as I turned and sprinted out the door; still ajar from my confused entrance._

_Lanaya was walking towards the house from her friend's place up the street and she looked shocked as I tried to barrel past her._

"_Hey, Sage, what's wrong? Why are you running off? They're telling everyone to clear out so we need to get uncle, aunt and Marco," she said as she put her arm out to stop me from running past._

_I had my mouth open to reply, but I closed it at the mention of Marco's name before shaking my head and ducking under her arm and running straight to the train station without a break._

_I caught the first train to the main village and didn't look back._

_I found the cove 2 days later._

When I lay in bed I realised the flaw in my plan to run upstairs and sleep as soon as possible and pass that costume off as a bad dream.

The wardrobe had a tiny panel on the front and I selected a pair of denim shorts from the list. I didn't care if I was freezing, being warm would remind me too much of the suffocating heat of that stupid plastic suit.

It didn't even look like a freaking fish.

I should know. I was pretty well acquainted with the subject matter.

Problem?

I wasn't tired in the slightest.

After an hour and a half of rolling around sleeplessly on the mattress I gave up on sleep and jumped out of bed.

There was supposed to be a tribute lounge on the upstairs floors for people to sit around and probably organise alliances. It was a short trip up in the elevator, but I stayed in it much longer than I needed to, resting my head on the glass as I looked over the city, filled with lights and colour.

Finally, when I forced myself to look away from the beauty of the place I hated, I wandered along the hall and collapsed on one of the couches in the centre of the room which had a kitchenette and was the size of any other whole floor.

It appeared I was alone; the other tributes probably came up here immediately then went back down or didn't come up at all.

As I lay back on the armrest it occurred to me how much more tired I was now that I was somewhere where I didn't have a proper bed to sleep on. In fact the only reason I didn't fall asleep on the spot was the arrival of the District 3 girl, Pippa.

"Hey, fin boy," she said as she sat on the opposite arm rest. When I didn't answer she continued, "Couldn't sleep?"

I considered ignoring her further until I decided that I shouldn't have come up to the lounge if I didn't want to talk to anyone, "Obviously."

"I guess that was sort of obvious… Not still wearing the _wonderful_ fin costume?"

"I decided this was much more attractive," I drawled, tensing slightly as I straightened out on the chair.

She blushed slightly before trying to cover herself by replying, "Aren't you cold?"

"And here I thought the guy was meant to give the girl the jacket," I replied. I hadn't had a conversation like this in months, not that it mattered now anyway seeing as we were both going to die.

"Considering what's going to happen soon I really don't think it matters so long as we survive," she replied logically.

There was a sort of silence as we both sat uncomfortably with the knowledge that we were pretty certain to die and it wouldn't be pretty.

I was starting to feel pretty awkward after a minute or two and that was coming from a kid who hadn't talked properly in years.

"So…um… do you like the Capitol?" she asked.

"In theory or based on looks?" I countered.

"Both."

"In theory I hate them. They killed my older sister after I killed my brother because of the Games. They take everything we make and use it for themselves so that people waste away and starve every day and District 4 is supposedly 'rich.' I lived in the Victor's Village for the past three years and it's so much worse; being healthy but being unable to share it with anyone else and having to watch them die in the street while we eat like princes. I would say kings, but that's what the Capitol think they are.

"Based on looks it's amazing, but it's amazing in the same way as poisonous animals always have the brightest colours; if you were smart it would warn you to stay away."

"I think it's horrible," Pippa replied, "Every day, people from my District spend hours making lights and perfecting designs; sometimes it even drives them mad. As soon as they finish the design, it's taken from them and used for the Capitol. They waste away their lives, pouring blood, sweat and tears into every wired in this godforsaken wasteland."

As much as I hated the Capitol, I'd never seem it like Pippa did. Suddenly the city of lights was bathed in blood, pouring from every tiny light flashing anywhere in the city.

"What's your District like?" I asked, trying to drive the conversation away from the blood and gore I'm sure we'd see all too much of within a week.

"It's claustrophobic and crowded. Filled with warehouses and labs, pumping out electronics and smoke. Some days it's so hard to breath that people have to run from building to building just to get enough air to make it to work without choking. How's yours?"

"It's definitely different. It's spread over dozens of kilometres of coast line and split up into little villages. The ocean stretches as far as you can see, occasionally split up by cliffs and outcrops. In the water there are always thousands of ships, prowling for fish and seafood."

"I wish I lived where you do."

It was strange; to have someone jealous of the life I'd led. I wished I could take her to my cove, covered in names, but I knew it was impossible. We were going to die and we'd never be able to show each other anything.

We must have talked for hours about our homes, our lives and what we wanted to do. Or had wanted to.

As Pippa finally stood up, I followed her.

She was about to press the elevator call button, but as her finger wavered over the button, she whirled around and kissed me on the lips.

I almost stepped back in shock, but I held my ground.

It was slightly awkward, I'd never kissed someone before in my life and yet here I was with someone I'd only known for a few hours, but what felt like years.

I was tentatively kissing her back when she finally pulled away and whispered, "I wanted to do that at least once before I died. And although I've only known you a few hours, Sage Zawyer, I'm glad it was you."

She whirls around and takes the lift down, leaving me standing, awestruck, in front of the glass wall leading to the elevator. I could have sworn there were tears on her face, I wasn't sure, and all I knew was that I'd never been so happy or so sad in my living memory.

**TRAINING: (WITH PIPPA AND A BIT OF GWYN)**

_My dreams were… strange. They weren't just dreams about killing and dying._

_Well they were, but that wasn't important._

_In some, Pippa died brutally before my eyes, she was stabbed by the Careers and ripped apart by mutts, piece by piece in brutal clarity as I just watched, in some I was physically trapped; I could hear Claudia's creepy, childish laugh. Sometimes I just stood and watched, no matter how much I hated myself for doing so._

_In others, I was dying on the ground. I wasn't in pain; that was one thing sleep couldn't do to me, but that wasn't the problem._

_It was the look in Pippa's eyes as she watched as I was ripped apart by wolves, stabbed and let bleed out by Careers or just plain killed. In one, I was poisoned and I had to watch her panicking, running around trying to find something to heal me until finally she just sobbed as I frothed at the mouth. I wasn't even dead yet when she lay over my body and cried onto my chest._

_I wasn't sure which one was worse._

_All I knew was that I had fallen for her._

I didn't want to roll out of bed for training.

In fact, if it weren't for the squawking of my escort outside my door, "Sage, get up! Sage, get up! Sage, get up!" I might not have given a shit about training.

When I realised it was 5 am in the morning, I still didn't give a shit about training. What was that, 3 hours sleep? Less?

I was still in my jeans but I decided to throw on a grey shirt before smashing my door outwards as hard as I could into the escort's face. She annoyed me even more by stepping out of the way and squawking, "Breakfast! Breakfast!" like a badly trained parrot until I sat down to eat.

I inhaled some bacon, barely watching as I ate all the protein and carbohydrate I could muster as Dia was dragged in by the escort, still squawking.

"Did the little princess need her beauty sleep?" I said sardonically as she sat down.

She looked surprised at my sudden outburst of conversation before hissing and eating as I left the table to clean up before training.

I was still sparkling as I went down the elevator; nothing in the bathroom, even a Capitol bathroom, would get the amount of glitter my prep team used off my skin.

As soon as the elevator landed on the training centre floor, I realised why our escort had got us up at 5 am and sent us to training at 6. Even if she didn't have any brains, obviously one escort did because we were the last Career District to arrive.

We were alone and it was clear Ronan had already taken charge.

"District 4, you're late!" he barked.

"Yeah, yeah," Dia replied carelessly as Aphrodite grinned at her.

"Does anyone have ideas for anyone else we should take in the alliance?" Aphrodite asked as Wolf shifted his weight uneasily but kept silent.

I wondered if I should stay silent, but I wanted Pippa to have the best chance of survival, and that was inside the bloodthirsty Careers, not as a target.

"No?" she asked.

"Pi- the District 3 girl," I finally replied to see most of the group nodding, even Dia, however unwillingly.

"We could use some brains in the group," Wolf agreed.

"That's decided then," Aphrodite said, clearly trying to take control off of Ronan because he was slightly too slow to reply quickly.

When Pippa finally came down, Ronan offered her a position in the alliance and she seemed uncertain. As soon as I looked at her though, she said yes and I couldn't help but wonder if I was going to be the cause of her demise.

**INTERVIEWS:**

My previous stylist had mysteriously and worryingly, even though I hated his sense of style, vanished to be replaced by a deadly serious woman in a straight black dress.

Her taste was undeniably better as she managed to get the glitter out of my hair and off my face and dressed me in a set of pants that looked like they were plated with fish scales and steel blades on my arms, back and legs that looked as though they were fins of some deadly fish species.

She never talked once and that was somewhat relieving for me in comparison to the verbal attack of the chariot ride prep.

Pippa and I had been sort of awkward for the first day of training after our midnight… conversation, but we'd freed up by the last two days, trying to enjoy our last moments with each other before the Games, as though they'd happened somewhere normal.

She walked up to me underneath the stage and whispered, "Good luck and don't make a fool of yourself."

"You too," I managed to whisper before Aphrodite was called up and we had to be silent.

I couldn't hear Pippa's speech, but the cheers were clear even in the green room.

Finally, I was called up and I was almost shaking with nerves.

As I sat down the interviewer tried to make me comfortable with some basic questions, "So, Sage, tell us about yourself."

"Well my name's Sage Mar, but I usually go by Zawyer after my grandfather, I trust you've all heard of Azul Zawyer?" I asked to a raucous reply of shouting from the audience, "I love spear fishing and swimming well… anywhere really."

"What do you think of the Capitol?"

I thought back to last night's conversation, about a city washed over with blood. "It's really pretty, I love the look of the lights at night and the food is _amazing_. I didn't know seafood could taste like that and I live in District 4," I lied as the audience laughed.

"Do you like tonight's outfit? I think the audience does!" he shouted gleefully as the audience cheered.

"Sure, I love the blades, they look totally amazing; I definitely wouldn't want to see them on a fish back home, that's for sure."

"Do you want to show the audience what it looks like standing up?"

"Sure, why not?" I stood up and showed of the blade running up my back and I realised that the seat had been specially padded so the blade didn't rip into it, "I definitely like the lack of blue Lycra!" The audience laughed as the buzzer rang and I joined Pippa and the other tributes on the couch.

I could hear Aphrodite and Dia muttering behind me, "Wow he's doing a great job leading her on."

"Who says he's leading her on?"

"Sage is a bastard, he was the little brother of a friend of mine and he killed his brother."

"And I thought Claudia was psycho…"

Was this really what they thought of me?

Was I going to be famous for being the heartless tribute that killed his brother then led on a girl until she died in the arena?

I gripped Pippa's hand tightly, just for a moment before I started to prepare myself for what would come tomorrow. That I would have to kill again and that at least Pippa or I would die knowing we were hopelessly in love with each other.

**Phew, that was huge. I hope you guys liked it and the next chapter is the end, the big Victor's reveal.**

**Remember to submit to my new SYOT! (Especially male tributes, I have more than enough females)**


	21. And the Winner Is

**I made it the 37.5th Hunger Games (re-read the first chapter, I edited it) to make it canon with my new SYOT, Left for Dead. I'm planning a multi-chapter story as to what happened in the 37th Hunger Games that went so horribly wrong but for now, just enjoy the victor's reappearance as a mentor in the 54th Hunger Games.**

**It's tempting to do two endings I have to say, one of each or even where they both win because they die at the same time (and get revived or both just die). As tempting as it is though, I think it defeats the purpose of the Hunger Games so there's just one winner.**

**This took _ages_ because I couldn't bear to kill either of them. Finally, the votes are in and by the votes, the victor of the 37.5th Hunger Games is…**

**Dead Tributes:**

District 1 Female: Aphrodite Fortescue

District 2 Female: Claudia Van Paul

District 2 Male: Ronan Valkyrie

District 3 Male: Braxton Bridges

District 3 Female: Pippa York

District 4 Female: Dia Feng

District 5 Male: Xac Eckstorm

District 5 Female: Kara Sanders

District 6 Male: Gregory Pinty

District 6 Female: Gwyn Young

District 7 Male: Zane Basserei

District 7 Female: Ivory Ness

District 8 Female: Ash Manor

District 8 Male: Morty Fellar

District 9 Male: Cruz Markel

District 9 Female: Aeva Persimmon

District 10 Male: Crato Giaga

District 10 Female: Giadi Rossi

District 11 Male: Xander Bakaari

District 11 Female: Fawn Lark

District 12 Male: Alex Sparrow

District 12 Female: Artemis Rey Yale

District 13 Male: Ezekiel Peabody

District 13 Female: Alexandretta Mainoff

**Uncertain Tributes:**

District 1 Male: Wolfgane Lee

District 4 Male: Sage Zawyer

**The Victor of the 375th Hunger Games: (District Pissed Off)**

The room was warm.

I wished it was freezing cold.

The bed was comfortable and the sheets were soft as feathers.

I wished they felt like rocks, tearing at my skin.

The lights were bright; the room was white and peaceful.

I wished it was dark, that there were shadows in the corner of my vision.

The hospital was safe and there was no one trying to kill me.

I wished I was back in the arena, the night I stayed up to watch over Gwyn. I wished I could tell her to run, to get away and that I'd protect her. I wished I could have been quick enough to save Lexi instead of waiting for the second cannon. I wished I could have told Ronan that Claudia was setting her trap just as much for him as for everyone else.

Most importantly, I wished I'd taken the spear for Pippa.

I felt above my left eyebrow, pulling out the stitches in a single pull. I didn't care about the pain; I didn't even care about the fresh blood spattering the eerily white sheets.

I pulled out the IV line before they could knock me out as I got out of the warm bed. I felt around my mouth and found a new tongue, grafted on like some type of new upholstery and had to stop myself from cutting it off again, to remove what wasn't mine.

I probably would have if it weren't for the throbbing pain in my wrist where Claudia's flail had cracked it. Freaking sponsors and their gifts.

Still, I didn't feel cold. I was still warm and safe, like 23 other kids would never be. I was still alive and mobile, like 23 corpses would never be. I was able to talk and taste, like 23 children never will.

An avox walked in with a stack of clothes. She seemed shocked by the fresh blood trickling down my forehead, but she wasn't in any position to pass comment. Just like I wasn't in the arena.

There was no t shirt and dark brown pants like the ones I'd worn in the arena, except with the legs cut off to make them seem like the ones I wore, and it almost made me scream. I'd finally escaped that terrible claustrophobia of the arena, only to have it brought back to me once again in a clean, laundry-pressed little pile.

Finishing off the pile where several items I recognised instantly.

First was Pippa's necklace. Apparently giving me back my spear was too dangerous, as though I could do anything about it with all the Peacekeepers crawling around. Someone had even decided to attach my wooden fish hook token from Pippa's body. I hated it, but still I put it on, in memory of Pippa and of the part of me that died in the arena with her.

Second was the mechanical knife Gwyn had received as a sponsor gift. I slid my fingers into the handle, my fingers instantly finding their old niches. I pressed the button on the handle and watched as the tiny hydraulics shunted back and forth; making the blade twitch like someone was sawing wood. I didn't need to check to know it was dead blunt. There was even a scabbard so I could strap it to my wrist but it also served as bandaging for my wrist, which I did. Apparently they could fix the broken bone but were too… I don't know… lazy? to give me any painkillers.

I looked at the IV on the ground and decided lazy wasn't it; they just expected me to still be unconscious.

Next, there was the harness that once held my trident, spear, knife and shattered tent pole, now empty as I slung it over my shoulders onto a bare chest.

It seemed the Capitol was a fan of the 'beaten up warrior' stereotype because, apart from the one above my eye, my arms were still covered in scars from Ivory at the bloodbath before she'd run off, Claudia and just general injuries which were touched up and slightly healed but still brutal-looking. Even my 'jasmine' symbol scar was still firmly etched in the dark skin on the back of my hand.

Still far too comfortable, despite the memories weighing down my entire body and my attire, I tried to distract myself, but nothing could pull my mind away from the past. Not pain, not the beauty of the horizon, not even the thought that if I died, maybe I'd find a 'heaven.'

Even if a God did exist, I hated him. Some things were just too much to keep your belief in any sort of 'good' or 'justice.'

I was about to go out to a crowd where some of them hated me. I knew many of them wanted Wolf to win. It was so easy to forget about the distant past when the rest of the Games had been so recent. Maybe in another life I could have had Pippa, not had to hold Gwyn's hand while she died but all the Capitol remembered was Fawn and Wolf.

I was going to have my district serenaded with gifts in my honour when I felt like I should being tortured. I'd killed so many people; so many people had died for me to be safe and I felt like there should be some sort of payback. Someone to say, "I hate you, Sage!" Someone to call me by my name and name me liar. A cheat, famous only for my sins.

My stylists came in a few minutes later and dragged me down the hall towards a make up room, chatting about how amazing it was that I'd won and how they'd 'believed in me the whole time.'

Yeah right, as if they weren't calling for my blood like the rest of the Capitol as I killed their golden lover-boy Wolf.

"We voted for you the whole way Sage!" they chorused as they washed my skin.

"Voted?" I tried to ask, but the words came out all wrong. More like zwu-turd but obviously something freaky in whatever drugs they take must screw with their voices because they understood perfectly.

"Of course, the Capitol kept the two of you and then we got to choose which one we wanted to win! It was delightful, none of that 'luck' tosh but it cut the value of our bets…"

So the Capitol voted… for me?

I couldn't think of a reason why they wouldn't pick Wolf, the older lover boy who managed to pull off guy-ponytail. Then again, I knew about the special type of slave trade among victors, I'd lived with my grand father too long not to. Someone with a dead girlfriend wasn't as interesting once they were off TV, but the one who had the girl everyone forgot with the District 4 tan, the hair and the dark eyes was exactly what they wanted.

They washed the blood off my face; clearly TV gore was entertainment, but having to see it in real life disgusted them. Like they disgusted me. They didn't apply any make up for once, leaving my face clean, only serving to accentuate the newly opened wound more.

Finally, they cut my hair shorter at the back from where it had grown almost to ponytail length like Wolf and Ronan's had been. Then, instead of my usual 'hanging over the eyes' they spiked my hair up and slicked it across to end around the scar like I had just walked off the set of some stupid little movie.

It seemed I was deemed ready for my onstage performance as I was led to a small, dusty room underneath a stage bearing an overexcited show host Romeo Serene. So much for the 'serene' part. As for the 'Romeo' part, he wishes. If I hated enclosed spaces _before_ the Games, it was nothing compared to how I felt now. It was like having knives raked down my nerves from behind, no matter how many times I tried to turn away.

"Now ladies _aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnddd_ gentlemen!" he drawled, dragging out the 'and' like it was on his personal, squeaking torture rack, "Let's welcome the victor of the 37.5th Hunger Games, Sage Zawyer!"

The little metal disc rose up onto the stage and the lights blinded me.

I was used to the darkness of the wooded arena; even the exposure of the plateau was dull so the stage lights blinded me. If it wasn't for all the faces watching me I would have crouched in a ball like I had so many times in the arena and tried to hide from the world.

Every year I'd seen the final interviews of the Games, there'd been wild cheering for the victor. Not this year.

There was some cheering from the audience, but some of them had been gunning for Wolf to win, betted on his odds and I'd killed him. A glance at Romeo's watch told me it was only a day after the Games had finished. Apparently that wasn't long enough for them to be happy with me winning.

As I walked over to a chair placed across from Serene's, I swear you could have heard crickets chirping in the mass of Capitol people below the stage.

"So, Sage, how's it feel being the victor of this invigorating first ever _half_ Quell?" he asked jubilantly.

"Shitty."

"What would be your favourite part of these Games?" Serene asked, trying to steer the conversation away from me swearing in front of a live audience.

"Oh, there's such a huge range of great moments to choose from isn't there?" I replied sarcastically, something which was totally missed by Serene as he nodded excitedly, "How about when I got reaped? That was _totally_ amazing. When I had to cut my tongue out? Loved that bit too. Watching Pippa get speared by a spear aimed for me? That was _great,_" I drawled as Serene's expression became more uneasy, but I was on a roll, "Getting chased by spider mutts? That was a great adrenaline rush. Blowing up Claudia's venom supply? Okay, maybe that was actually really fun, but that's probably about it. Holding Gwyn's hand while she died? Probably the shittiest moment of my life," that got a sound of sympathy from the audience, but apparently some of the other sarcasm was still lost on them, "Then being on my own, paranoid about who's watching me, totally loved that bit too. Finally, only deciding to fight after Lexi died really made my day. District 2's resident psychopath shattering my wrist was an amazing experience," I raise my wrist to show the scars which seems to fascinate them, "Then finding out that Wolf survived the arena and was killed here in the Capitol because you liked me better was just fantastic."

That earns cheers because they actually think I'm happy.

Ah… no.

"How about we revisit some of the best moments of the Games?" Serene asks, steering the conversation to 'lighter' topics like the experienced showman he is.

The video is well cut together; I'll give it that if nothing else. Every death is show in slow motion as the camera zooms in to be cut across by a kill count and the face of the dead tribute.

All of the most heart-breaking moments are in slow motion with music underneath the talking. I have to watch the District 13 girl kill her District partner, I have to watch the blow dart that kills Pippa and I have to watch the Careers kill each other. I have to watch Gwyn die all over again.

When I watch Wolf burn Fawn's foot off, I can't help but wonder if he wasn't really the better man.

Then again, nothing in the Capitol is based on goodness in the purity sense.

Then I have to watch me win. Watch Claudia's flail shatter my wrist, watch Wolf's torture. I have to watch everything that brought me to where I am now, warm and safe but distinctly unhappy.

"So what are you most looking forward to back in the District?" Serene asks cheerily, as though he hasn't just watched the deaths of 22 kids shortly before the other happened behind closed doors.

"Swimming, living next to my grandfather, getting back to normal life in general," I replied, trying to keep my cool while my insides burned with anger.

"That sounds great, in fact, we've got a great shot of you going swimming in the Games, let's have a look!" he shouts as the screen changes picture again to show the video of me going swimming under the waterfall. As I flick the water out of my hair I think I can see how I hooked the preteens and half the voters (females) in the Capitol.

It's about an hour more before I get off stage of inane questions and the audience shrieking my name and when I get to the Training Centre building, I realise I can't stomach sleeping in the Capitol and get on the first train back to District 4.

Does it surprise me that when I return my grandfather's missing and there's a Peacekeeper with a scarlet envelope and a death threat for the family I hate?

No, it doesn't really.

**So that's it folks. If you liked this story then check out my new Hunger Games story Left for Dead: 54th Hunger Games because I think my writing's improved since this story and Sage Zawyer will reappear as the District 4 mentor (And the predecessor to Finnick Odair).**

**Sorry Bowserboy, I really couldn't pick it and the votes favoured Sage just like the "Capitol's" did.**

**I hope you enjoyed the now 37.5th Hunger Games and keep reading my stories.**

**PS. This in no way affects Felix Haas' chances in my new story.**


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